From: The Washington Post
NYC hikes price of pack of cigarettes to $13, highest in US
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“These measures will destroy the business investment of retailers who have been leading the effort to prevent youth access to tobacco products, and the result will be lost revenue, lost jobs and an increasing number of sales in unregulated and illegal settings,” Jim Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, said after the legislation passed earlier this month.
From: The Globe & Mail
Black markets for illegal cigarettes found in Vancouver, Toronto
VANCOUVER
Chinese cigarettes, barred from legal sale in Canada, are being briskly bought and sold by black-market vendors in Vancouver and Toronto, some of whom are getting the product from travellers purchasing cigarettes duty free and then exchanging them for services in Canada.
From: Mail & Guardian
Hitmen, mafia and control – SA’s underbelly
I would urge you to do the same: read the local newspaper and see how often murders are reported in this way. As this book was being completed, for example, a prominent criminal defence lawyer, Noorudien Hassan, was shot in Cape Town in what was clearly a hit, followed a few days later by a hotel manager who worked for one of the city’s most notorious underworld figures. In Johannesburg, an individual with known links to cigarette smuggling, Raymond “Razor” Barras, met his end in a suburban driveway in Kensington. A few days later, Sibusiso Sithole, the municipal manager of Richmond in KwaZulu-Natal, known for his opposition to corruption, was executed while walking in the town.
The bodies keep stacking up.
From: Papua New Guinea Today
Deal to help fight illicit trade in PNG
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Police Commissioner Gary Baki said illicit trade remains a challenge for the RPNGC.
Baki said despite having the transnational crime unit within the department which is in continuous dialogue with other Pacific Island countries, through the sharing of information on people moving illegally or goods being smuggled within the Pacific region, they are still struggling to address this growing issue.
