From: NewEurope
In the year 2013, according to the Tobacco industry’s figures ,58.6 billion ofillicit cigarettes were smoked in the European Union – these are around 4400 truckloads stuffed with cigarette master cases.The huge majority of these cigarettes is smuggled.Only 5.8% of consumed illicit cigarettes are counterfeit, the rest is contraband (including the so called “Illicit Whites”).
On top of the consumed illicit cigarettes, around 4 billion of illicit cigarettes are seized each year.The consumed illicit cigarettes make up for around 10.5% of overall consumption in the EU, which is at around 560 billion cigarettes per year.
To illustrate this amount: if one were to glue these (assumed to be king sized) cigarettes together and arrange them at the land borders of the European Union, one could build an almost three meter high 10 cigarette thick (8cm) cigarette wall – one of these 10 layers of cigarettes would be entirely made up of illicit cigarettes. This also illustrative for the waste smokers produce in Europe each year – but that is another story…
