Tobacco is another Balkan crime lord

TIRANA, April 21 – Cigarette counterfeiting and smuggling in the Balkans is one of the primary drivers of crime and corruption in the region, according to a coalition of investigative reporting projects.
The Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project, with bureaus and partners in Sarajevo, Albania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and else- where, has assembled a massive investigative package on tobacco smuggling, and particularly the involvement of government officials in the region. High prices and taxes on tobacco in the West are driving the smuggling boom, with a packet of cigarettes purchased in Ukraine for less than a euro selling for seven Euros in London.
The problem is so bad that the smuggling industry has grown into the “fourth or fifth largest competitor” to Phillip Morris International, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies.(Tirana Times Staff)