Global cigarette gangs target region’s ports

The lucrative global trade in counterfeit tobacco has become so widespread that a quarter of all cigarettes smoked in the Yorkshire and Humber region are bootlegged, leaving the vast blackhole in the Treasury’s finances.

The Government is working with investigators from HM Revenue and Customs to tackle crime syndicates operating in countries as far afield as China, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Eastern Europe to target the UK.

The Yorkshire Post has learnt there is growing evidence of smugglers using flights into Leeds-Bradford Airport and Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster in a bid to escape detection as law enforcement is focused on the UK’s major access points such as Heathrow, Stansted and Dover.

Will O’Reilly, a former detective chief inspector with Scotland Yard, has carried out research to glean intelligence on the extent of the problem in Yorkshire.

He said: “It is the scourge of every community, and nowhere is unaffected by the smuggling of illegal cigarettes. It is widely accepted offenders are also responsible for a wide range of other criminal activity, including the funding of terrorism, smuggling firearms, drugs and people trafficking.

“The largest number of smuggled cigarettes are found in London and the South-East, and there has been a concerted effort to tackle the problem in the UK’s largest ports and airports. But the criminals are increasingly looking towards provisional airports in an attempt to avoid detection, and are trying to bring in smaller consignments as well.”

Research has shown that cheap illegal cigarettes are being sold for as little as £2.50 a packet on street corners and in “fag houses”, with criminal gangs routinely targeting children. While the health dangers of legal tobacco are widely publicised, contraband cigarettes present even greater risks. Filthy conditions in the covert factories in which counterfeit cigarettes are often produced has meant that traces of rat droppings, human faeces and flies have been found mixed in the tobacco.

For the sixth year in a row, the blackmarket trade in cigarettes in the European Union reached a new record high, according to a KPMG study. In 2012, the levels rose to 11.1 per cent compared to 10.4 per cent in 2011, resulting in an estimated €12.5bn in lost tax revenues to Member States.

Mr O’Reilly has himself been conducting research for Philip Morris International, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, to gain a wider understanding of the trade in the UK. His latest study focused on York, and test purchases revealed illegal cigarettes had been sold in the city on at least 12 occasions.

There had been a small fall in the sale of “non domestic” cigarettes in York from 25.6 per cent in the last three months of 2011 to 24.48 per cent in the same period last year, but Mr O’Reilly warned the scale of the problem regionally remains undiminished. The “non domestic” rate in Yorkshire rose from 21.1 per cent in the final quarter of 2011 to 25 per cent in the final three months of last year.

The HMRC estimated smuggled cigarettes cost the taxpayer up to £3.6bn in lost revenue in 2009/10. A spokeswoman stressed there had been successes in tackling the problem, but admitted illegal tobacco is still costing up to £1.2bn in lost revenue. In the last two years nearly 3.6bn illicit cigarettes and more than 1,000 tonnes of rolling tobacco have been seized, resulting in 432 prosecutions.

The HMRC spokeswoman added: “We continue to work across government, to further improve our intelligence and ensure the organised criminal gangs are brought to justice.”

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