Fake branded branded cigarettes: every second one understands the tipping black market

Many people are always confronted with illegal cigarette trade in everyday life. As a survey commissioned by the tobacco group Philip Morris showed, four percent of the 1,004 respondents are often offered illegal cigarettes and 13 percent occasionally. Almost two thirds have never experienced this – the rest rarely or he was not sure. Smokers and non-smokers were among the respondents, the survey of 18 to 69-year-olds is representative.

Trading with cigarettes – which are introduced to Germany from Eastern Europe or are produced in illegal factories in this country – is a mass business: According to a KPMG study, 1.7 billion such tips on the black market were sold in Germany and thus a little more than 2023. The black market glow stems make up a good two percent of cigarette consumption as a whole. The annual tax damage is estimated at around 400 million euros.

Organized crime is strengthened

Tammo Körner by Philip Morris Germany warns of the consequences of illegal cigarettes. “The profits use organized crime to expand other crime areas such as human, weapon and drug trafficking- this has consequences for the state and us as a society.” Tax revenues were lost to the state, which then lacked government benefits.

The awareness of the problem is definitely available in a large part of the population, as the survey shows. A good third of the respondents consider it “completely unacceptable” if someone knowingly buy illegal products such as cigarettes. Almost half finds this “not good, but sometimes understandable” and every tenth “not so bad”. Four percent stated that this was “absolutely fine”.

Tobacco specialist Körner sees the results of the survey as evidence that the risks of illegal cigarette trade are underestimated. Because while many responded in the survey concerned about drug trafficking, cybercrime, human trafficking and arms trade, illegal cigarette trade plays only a subordinate role in organized crime from the perspective of most respondents. That is a dangerous knowledge gap, he says. “Anyone who buys illegal cigarettes strengthens organized crime in general and not just an isolated, supposedly harmless area.”

Customs union is concerned

Philip Morris appeals to politics to proceed more resolutely against illegal cigarette trade, for example with more customs officers. Together with the German Customs and Finance Union BDZ, the tobacco group starts a reconnaissance campaign to point out the dangers of illegal cigarette purchases.

“In our view, the dimensions of the black market for cigarettes are not only alarming, but also represent a direct threat to our security architecture,” says BDZ Federal Chairman Thomas Liebel. Germany has developed from a pure transitland into a strategically important production and sales location for organized crime. “It is no longer just about tax evasion, but about the direct enrichment of mafia structures through the cigarette smuggling.”