Authors: Georgios A. Antonopoulos and Alexandra Hall Over the last two decades official and media discourses have paid increasing attention to the proceeds of ‘organized crime’. However, although there is a relatively sound understanding of finance-related issues in the drug markets, not much is known about other illegal markets. Drawing on a diverse set of […]
Authors: James Prieger, Jonathan D. Kulick, and Mark A. R. Kleiman Abstract Illicit trade in tobacco is a substantial and growing problem in the U.S., causing loss of tax revenue, damage to public health, and threats to public safety. Decisions about enforcement against ITTP involve tradeoffs among competing objectives. Good policy design can improve the […]
Author: Roger Bate Abstract The World Health Organization (WHO) states that smoking cigarettes is the largest cause of preventable premature death globally. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) entered into force in 2005 with an aim to lower the death toll. FCTC has adopted a policy of encouraging developing nations to follow the […]
Author: Georgios A. Antonopoulos and Klaus von Lampe This paper provides an introduction to the special issue of Trends in Organized Crime bringing forward numerous empirical research findings and theoretical accounts on the illicit tobacco market in several European countries and the United States. The illegal trade in tobacco products is widely considered to be a manifestation […]
Author: Michal Stoklosa The tobacco industry regularly uses the threat of increased illicit cigarette trade to dissuade governments from implementing prohealth policies. Illicit trade is the number one argument used by the tobacco lobby to oppose tobacco tax increases, and is also being used against implementation of other major tobacco control measures such as plain packaging, […]
Authors: Luk Joossens et al. Abstract To address the illicit cigarette trade, the European Union (EU) has signed agreements with the four major Transnational Tobacco Companies (TTCs) that involve establishing extensive systems of cooperation. All agreements foresee two types of payments: annual payments (totalling US$ 1.9 billion over 20 years) and supplementary seizure payments, equivalent to […]
Authors: Karen Evans-Reeves et al. Abstract Background: Standardised tobacco packaging, which commenced in the UK in May, 2016, has been vehemently opposed by transnational tobacco companies. Previous research has concluded that companies invoke the existence of an illicit trade in tobacco to oppose tobacco control policies and exaggerate its true scale. The argument they make […]
I. Introduction The illicit tobacco trade is a global problem that threatens the public health gains of tobacco control and the outcomes of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). In addition to the damage caused to health, the illicit trade in tobacco is a form of tax evasion and thus also inflicts […]
Authors: Ali Ajmal and Veng Ian U Abstract Objectives: To estimate the size of illegal tobacco trade and consumption and assess the impact of tobacco tax on the illicit tobacco market in New Zealand (NZ). Methods: Data on the import and seizure of legal and illegal tobacco in NZ was obtained from NZ Customs. Previous […]
Authors: Corné van Walbeek and Lerato Shai Abstract Background: The tobacco industry claims that illicit cigarette trade in South Africa is high and rising. This is often used as an argument not to increase the tobacco excise tax or to regulate tobacco products. Objectives: To determine how the tobacco industry’s estimates of the size of […]
