Editor’s Note: The following is translated from the French via Google Translate. The original article is available here.
From: Maglor.fr
Moroccan customs administration in 2015 renewed the investigation it had initiated the previous year to estimate the rate of cigarette smuggling on the Moroccan market. In April 2015, 14% of cigarettes consumed in Morocco were contraband. Last year, the rate was 12.5%.
In consultation with the tobacco operators in Morocco, the Customs Administration launched an investigation identifying the rate of contraband cigarettes on the national market. It shows that 14.02% of cigarettes put into circulation nationwide are from smuggling.
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A public health problem
Beyond financial crime, it is also the public health problem that must be mentioned. We know that legally sold tobacco smoke is harmful to health. But the contraband cigarettes are more so.
France faces the same phenomenon especially since the price of cigarettes has risen sharply. In January 2014, Europe 1 radio had asked the French customs laboratory in Marseille to analyze the content of a sample of contraband cigarettes. Here are his conclusions:
The taste of these cigarettes is not the same and, much worse, their content has something to shudder. Heavy metals, feces, sawdust: Europe 1 went to the laboratory of the French Customs, in Marseille, to dissect the content of these cigarettes sold under the counter or, increasingly, on the Internet.
Many more heavy metals. Responsible for analyzing the seizures made by Customs, the laboratory of Marseille is explicit: if cigarettes contain many toxic products, their counterfeits have even more worrying concentrations. On average, a counterfeit cigarette contains for example three times more cadmium and arsenic, mercury seven times and eight times more lead.
Cement, wood, Hair … But there is worse: cigarettes often contain products that have nothing to do there. The Marseille laboratory analyzes have enabled to detect the presence of cement, sawdust, plastic, pieces of fabric, but also hair in animal hairs. “We even found mouse droppings, since we highlighted that manufacturing in China were made in underground, under tarps, buried in the earth. It has therefore found it (traces) of rats, insects, worms, “explains Denis Olivier, head of the laboratory. And it made clear that even when it comes to real tobacco, it can be polluted because grown on brownfield sites that have not been decontaminated.
A much more dangerous paper. The contraband cigarette paper is also not of the same quality and do not meet European standards. “The European regulation defines the ignition propensity, that is to say, a cigarette will be able to stop herself if there is no suction on the tip of the cigarette. It is for prevent fires, particularly when people smoke in bed Or counterfeit cigarettes do not have that device then, “said Denis Olivier.
Even the filter is counterfeit. Usually the filter of a cigarette is made of cotton wool. But the mafia networks prefer, for cost reasons, their manufacture polypropylene. A plastic commonly used in the automotive industry or to design synthetic carpet.
