From: Asia Times
Chinese cigarette smugglers keep Southeast Asia lit
China is the world’s biggest supplier of tobacco products and source of most contraband shipments that reach many of Southeast Asia’s estimated 122 million smokers
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As many as one in every two cigarettes sold in some countries is contraband, providing plenty of temptation for smokers who were thinking of giving up. Singaporean smokers get their illicit supplies from Malaysia, where cigarettes are cheaper, but these probably originated in Indonesia, whose retail prices are even lower.
China, easily the world’s biggest supplier of tobacco products, is the source of most contraband shipments that reach Southeast Asia. A recent report by the UN’s drugs agency on transnational crimes stated that cigarettes follow the same routes used to smuggle other contraband, including illicit narcotics and counterfeit goods.
