Tobacco Firms Face Quiz in Cigarette Smuggling Inquiry PDF Print E-mail
Fran Abrams and Andy Rowell, 24 September 2000

Article originally appeared in The Independent and can be accessed at Andy Rowell's Website

Tobacco Firms Face Quiz in Cigarette Smuggling Inquiry


 British tobacco firms are to be questioned by Customs & Excise officials about why they export billions of cigarettes to countries where their brands are rarely, if ever, smoked.

A large proportion ends up back in the UK as part of a racket costing the British taxpayer 2.5bn a year in lost cigarette duties.

Half the contraband cigarettes seized at UK ports are made in Britain by British firms, an investigation by The Independent on Sunday has revealed. Leaked export figures show the firms, Imperial and Gallaher, are selling huge quantities of their products to countries where they are rarely smoked.

Such countries include Cyprus, said by EU anti-fraud officials to be on the smugglers' routes, and South Africa, named last week by British customs as a major source of illegal cigarettes. This year more than 9 billion British cigarettes are set to be shipped to Cyprus, the figures show, an island where fewer than 2,000 people smoke those brands.

Luxembourg and Belgium, which supply the illegal "white van trade" to Britain, will receive approximately 11 billion Regal, Superking, Benson and Hedges and Silk Cut cigarettes from the UK this year. Neither country has any significant domestic market for them, though travellers can bring a few hundred back legally. South Africa will receive around 9 billion Imperial cigarettes including Regal and Superking, the two brands most often smuggled into the UK.

Even more strikingly, the tiny Pyrenean state of Andorra, with a population of around 70,000, was used for a time as one of Europe's main smuggling centres. In 1997, UK exports to Andorra rose to 9 million per day - 130 for every person living there.

European anti-fraud officials are very concerned about the exports. A spokesman for the EU anti-fraud office said: "It is very suspicious that Regal and Superking, mainly smoked in the UK, are transported to several countries apparently with no reason."

British customs said the companies were co-operating with its investigations.

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