Well just as everybody said even people in tobacco control said higher taxes would lead to massive bootlegging in cigarettes! Look right in maryland the cigarette gestapo!

9 indicted for cigarette smuggling

They’re the tip of the iceberg,” Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot said. “There is an explosion of cigarette smuggling going on.”

Comptroller’s Supervisory Agent Mike Madison peered through his binoculars, eyeing the black Toyota Camry as it pulled up to the Woodbridge tobacco shop. A man in a polo shirt got out, laid down a mat in his trunk and went inside. He emerged carrying several grocery bags — 10 to 12 cartons of cigarettes, Madison guessed — and drove away.

It sounds innocuous. But tobacco smugglers like these, officials say, are responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost tax revenue to Maryland each year. On Thursday, Prince George’s County prosecutors announced that they had indicted nine people — allegedly responsible for nearly $30,000 in lost tax revenue — on criminal charges of transporting and conspiring to transport unstamped cigarettes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/9-indicted-for-cigarette-smuggling/2011/09/22/gIQAhvsBoK_story.html

Just like during alcohol prohibition:

Trade In Black-Market Cigarettes: Hot, Dangerous

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129934561

and as usual, John Davidson, aka harleyrider, aka John Engle, aka John Erkle is looking through the wrong end of the telescope. With Missouri having the lowest tax in the country and being centrally located, it is a prime source for smugglers to purchase cheap Missouri cigarettes and sell them in higher tax areas. The FBI has recently arrested some St Louis area smoke shop owners for smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes for sale in Chicago. Arrests have been made of a Kansas City based cigarette distributor for smuggling cigarettes for sale in Oklahoma and New York. Increasing Missouri's pitifully low cigarette tax will stem this lucrative criminal enterprise.

Raising the tax is what caused the problem of blackmarkets to start with the world over not just America. Raisning the taxes only fuels the blackmarket in Missouri itself!

Common sense dictates that with price increases, smokers would be deterred from smoking. Instead, the increase in prices has been a boost for illicit tobacco trading. “What happened was that the market size did not shrink, but instead there was a heavy increase in the illicit trade of tobacco because there weren’t enough measures in place to safeguard the market from infiltration by illicit traders,” says Karim Refaat, Head of Corporate Affairs for North Africa at British American Tobacco (BAT).

According to Refaat, the illicit tobacco trade accounted for a mere 0.01% of Egypt’s 81 billion stick market in the first quarter of 2010 and now jumped to 7%, with the possibility of moving toward the 10% mark. Refaat blames pricing dynamics for allowing illegal brands to gain a wider market share. bt

http://businesstodayegypt.com/news/display/article/artId:256/Tobacco-Taxes-A-Smuggler-s-Boon/secId:3

Illegal tobacco burns a hole in profits for licensed traders
BENIDORM TOBACCONISTS are alarmed over what they consider to be “a new wave of trafficking contraband” in the city. A high incidence of contraband tobacco has been detected over recent months; business mostly conducted within the British community. Certain establishments are selling the smuggled tobacco well below the market price offered in licensed premises. And some English bars and restaurants are also involved in selling under the counter tobacco amongst other illegal merchandise.

The Guardia Civil has launched an investigation into black market tobacco, concentrating on premises retaining an overlarge stock and checking on supply source documentation. It is suggested that in some instances the tobacco being sold is of inferior quality and contains unacceptable levels of tar, nicotine and manure mixtures. The illegal tobacco comes mainly from China.

http://www.roundtownnews.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32367&Itemid=32

Black Market Cigarettes Proliferate in San Jose

Buying a cigarrillo (cigarette in Spanish) is very easy in San José and all types of brands, including Mexican, Chinese and others, for the streets have all types and from all destinations. And that is worrisome for the country's legislators.

The new anti-smoking law proposes a series of taxes that will increase the cost of cigarettes and (in theory) reduce consumption.

But, that may only be true for the legal kind, for the lack of laws and controls allows a lucrative market for clandestine cigs.

One has to only take a walk in downtown San José to see the variety of cigarettes available - legal and illegal - and the availability to purchase only one for immediate smoking.

The new "anti-tobacco" law that is currently in discussion in the legislature would not only impose new taxes, prohibit smoking in public places and control advertising, but also combat the contraband trade, which experts say is way out of control.

The intent of the legislation is not against the prohibition of importing and selling foreign brands, but rather to ensure that the imports enter the country legally, that is pay the import tax.

Legislator María de los Ángeles Alfaro, who is spearheading the bill, says "the logic is that raising prices will diminish consumption, but the market is imperfect".

Today, the price of a legal pack of cigarettes is about ¢1.300 colones. But the contraband can be bought for as little as ¢500 on the streets of San José, a price that, according to Alfaro, allows the young to afford to buy.

The anti-smoking bill has been around for some time and like all legislation to be approved in Costa Rica, it is a slow process.

If and when it is approved, the legislation would be one of the best in Latin America, according to the l Coordinador de la Red Nacional Anti-tabaco (RENATA) and an official of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Roberto Castro.

Castro explains that the bill is according to the provisions of the Framework Convention of the World Health Organization (WHO), and takes in the experiences of other countries.

http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2012/february/10/costarica12021007.htm

Cigarette smuggling a growing problem in Maryland
Harsher penalties considered

BERLIN -- The number of people caught smuggling untaxed cigarettes into Maryland is on the rise, and it's costing the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost tax revenue, authorities say.

"If they can buy them in Virginia or the Carolinas for $5 a pack, they can go up to New York and sell them for $15 a pack, so they triple their money," said Detective Sgt. Richard Klebon with the Berlin Barrack of the Maryland State Police.
Law enforcement efforts ultimately aim to keep the tax dollars in Maryland; the state levies a $2-per-pack tax. As far as the Comptroller of Maryland is concerned, cigarette smuggling is a big business with little risk.
Comptroller Peter Franchot "has always been a strong proponent for aggressive enforcement of Maryland's tax laws," said his spokeswoman, Christine Feldmann. "It's a matter of fairness. Criminals who knowingly violate Maryland's tax laws hurt small businesses who follow the rules. It's about leveling the playing field."
She said typically when smugglers are caught, they can face criminal charges of transporting and possession of untaxed cigarettes. The transporting charge is a felony, and carries a fine of $50 per carton as well as the threat of up to two years in prison. Possession is a misdemeanor and can bring up to a $1,000 fine and a year in prison.

Taxes are the problem and that problem was created by the anti-smoking agenda and like alcohol prohibition is already doomed to failure. Missourri is reaping the benefits of having low taxes as out of staters head to the state to purchase low tax cigarettes legally.................Costing their home states big revenues and causing illegal trade due to high taxes!

I was against cigarette taxes when I was a smoker. But since I switched to electronic cigarettes two years ago, I don't have to worry about smoking bans, tar, smell or really high cigarette taxes! http://www.savecig.com