Translate

viernes, 24 de julio de 2009

Documento de la FDA sobre el cigarrillo electrónico

FDA NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: July 22, 2009

Media Inquiries: Siobhan DeLancey, 301-796-4668, siobhan.delancey@fda.hhs.gov
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

FDA and Public Health Experts Warn About Electronic Cigarettes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that a laboratory analysis of electronic cigarette samples has found that they contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals such as diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze.

Electronic cigarettes, also called “e-cigarettes,” are battery-operated devices that generally contain cartridges filled with nicotine, flavor and other chemicals. The electronic cigarette turns nicotine, which is highly addictive, and other chemicals into a vapor that is inhaled by the user.

These products are marketed and sold to young people and are readily available online and in shopping malls. In addition, these products do not contain any health warnings comparable to FDA-approved nicotine replacement products or conventional cigarettes. They are also available in different flavors, such as chocolate and mint, which may appeal to young people.

Public health experts expressed concern that electronic cigarettes could increase nicotine addiction and tobacco use in young people. Jonathan Winickoff, M.D., chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium and Jonathan Samet, M.D., director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Southern California, joined Joshua Sharfstein, M.D., principal deputy commissioner of the FDA, and Matthew McKenna, M.D., director of the Office of Smoking and Health for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to discuss the potential risks associated with the use of electronic cigarettes.

“The FDA is concerned about the safety of these products and how they are marketed to the public,” said Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., commissioner of food and drugs.

Because these products have not been submitted to the FDA for evaluation or approval, at this time the agency has no way of knowing, except for the limited testing it has performed, the levels of nicotine or the amounts or kinds of other chemicals that the various brands of these products deliver to the user.

The FDA’s Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis analyzed the ingredients in a small sample of cartridges from two leading brands of electronic cigarettes. In one sample, the FDA’s analyses detected diethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze that is toxic to humans, and in several other samples, the FDA analyses detected carcinogens, including nitrosamines. These tests indicate that these products contained detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals to which users could potentially be exposed.

The FDA has been examining and detaining shipments of e-cigarettes at the border and the products it has examined thus far meet the definition of a combination drug-device product under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The FDA has been challenged regarding its jurisdiction over certain e-cigarettes in a case currently pending in federal district court. The agency is also planning additional activities to address its concerns about these products.

Health care professionals and consumers may report serious adverse events (side effects) or product quality problems with the use of e-cigarettes to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program either online, by regular mail, fax or phone.

#

For More Information
Electronic Cigarettes


Tomado de:

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm173222.htm


El Mundo.es. Madrid - Expaña, 24 de julio de 2009

ADVERTENCIAS EN EEUU

La FDA identifica sustancias cancerígenas en los cigarrillos electrónicos

  • Contienen nicotina y tóxicos como el etilenglicol, un anticongelante para el coche
  • Según los expertos, estos cigarrillos no ayudan a dejar de fumar y son peligrosos
  • AURA TARDÓN

    MADRID.- Aunque sus fabricantes aseguran que los cigarrillos electrónicos son menos perjudiciales que los convencionales, la Agencia Estadounidense del Medicamento (FDA, según sus siglas en inglés) acaba de anunciar que contienen ingredientes que producen cáncer y otros químicos tóxicos peligrosos para la salud, como el etilenglicol, utilizado como anticongelante para los coches.

    Este dispositivo consiste en una especie de cigarro que expulsa nicotina cuando la persona hace el gesto de inhalar y funciona con una batería a través de la cual se evitan las toxinas generadas con la combustión. Según la web de una de las compañías que lo comercializa, "no tiene los 4.000 componentes químicos producidos por el cigarrillo tradicional, ni alquitrán, ni otras sustancias cancerígenas".

    Ahora, los expertos de la FDA han descubierto que, después de analizar 19 cigarrillos de las dos marcas con más cuota de mercado en todo el mundo, "que la mayoría contenía carcinógenos tan conocidos como las nitrosaminas", explica Benjamín Westenberger, principal autor de esta investigación.

    Incluso cuando el etiquetado no señalaba la presencia de nicotina, los resultados mostraban lo contrario.

    No hay que olvidar que, por culpa de este tipo de sustancias, "uno de cada dos fumadores muere como consecuencia del tabaco y con una pérdida potencial de unos 20 años de vida. Es el primer problema de salud en los países industrializados", señala María Ángeles Planchuelo, presidenta del Comité Nacional para la Prevención del tabaquismo (CNPT).

    No ayudan a dejar de fumar

    En principio, según sus fabricantes, los objetivos de este producto son: convertirse en un sustituto del tabaco e intentar ayudar a quienes quieren dejar de fumar. Sin embargo, su eficacia para reducir el consumo de tabaco no está demostrada científicamente. "No cumple los requisitos para ser un medicamento (investigación completa, incluyendo todas las fases), por lo que no debe usarse para dejar de fumar. Para esto, ya existen fármacos acreditados por las autoridades sanitarias", afirma la presidenta del CNPT.

    De hecho, añade esta especialista, "ni la Agencia Española del Medicamento, ni su homóloga europea (EMEA) han autorizado ningún cigarrillo electrónico y cualquier producto con nicotina tiene que ser autorizado por estos organismos sanitarios".

    Teniendo en cuenta los resultados de las pruebas realizadas por la FDA, los especialistas en salud pública consideran que los cigarrillos electrónicos no sólo no ayudan a dejar de fumar sino que pueden aumentar la adicción a la nicotina y el consumo del tabaco, especialmente en la población joven, principal objetivo de las compañías de este sector. "La edad media de iniciación al tabaco son los 13 años y estas personas serán adictas durante 20-30 años", puntualiza Planchuelo.

    Al igual que los chicles, estos cigarrillos están disponibles en varios sabores, como chocolate o menta. Según los expertos, este puede ser el primer paso de acercamiento al tabaco convencional.

    Sin control de calidad ni advertencias para la salud

    "La FDA está preocupada por la seguridad de los cigarrillos y su comercialización", ha afirmado Margaret A. Hamburg, máxima responsable de la agencia estadounidense. No existe un control de calidad consistente y las cajetillas no contienen las advertencias de salud pertinentes, como en el caso del tabaco convencional. Además, son de muy fácil acceso.

    Aunque en España no hace mucho que están autorizados, también se pueden adquirir desde hace tiempo a través de internet y, en EEUU, pueden comprarse en cualquier centro comercial.

    Precisamente porque los e-cigarrillos no han sido presentados ante la FDA para su evaluación y autorización, la agencia no conocía los niveles de nicotina u otros químicos perjudiciales para la salud. Pero desde el verano de 2008, la FDA ha ido examinando algunos de los cigarrillos electrónicos importados de fuera, principalmente de China. Hasta la fecha, ha paralizado 50 envíos y está considerando otras acciones contra los importadores de estos productos y los distribuidores.

    A la vista de los nuevos hallazgos de la FDA, los especialistas sugieren que tanto los profesionales de la salud como los consumidores se informen de los efectos adversos y de los problemas que pueden acarrear este tipo de productos, que tampoco cuentan con la aceptación de la FDA.

    Tomado de:

    http://www.elmundo.es/elmundosalud/2009/07/24/tabaco/1248425594.html

jueves, 23 de julio de 2009

El Tiempo. Bogotá - Colombia, 23 de Julio de 2009

Ley antitabaco fue sancionada por el presidente Uribe, confirmó uno de los impulsores de la norma
La ley prohíbe, entre otros, la venta de cigarrillos al menudeo. Los tenderos tendrán un año de transición para hacer los cambios requeridos.

"Logramos que quedaran en firme los espacios libres de humo. Es decir, no se podrá fumar en recintos cerrados como bares, colegios, universidades y aeropuertos", dijo el senador José David Name, quien confirmó la sanción presidencial.
Además, la norma prohíbe a toda persona natural o jurídica la venta, directa e indirecta, de productos de tabaco y sus derivados, en cualquiera de sus presentaciones, a menores de dieciocho 18 años.
De acuerdo con la ley, las tabacaleras no podrán fijar "vallas, pancartas, murales, afiches, carteles o similares móviles o fijos relacionados con la promoción del tabaco y sus derivados".
Asimismo, en su artículo 15 la ley prohíbe "el patrocinio de eventos deportivos y culturales por parte de las empresas productoras, importadores o comercializadoras de productos de tabaco a nombre de sus corporaciones, fundaciones o cualquiera de sus marcas".
Igualmente, en las cajetillas de los cigarrillos tendrá que aparecer en cada una de sus caras un 30 por ciento del espacio dedicado a textos y fotos en los que se evidencie el daño a la salud que provoca fumar.
Si una persona fuma en lugares prohibidos, las sanciones irán desde la amonestación verbal hasta la expulsión del lugar.
El senador Name, del partido de 'la U', resaltó que con la sanción de la ley se pone "freno" al consumo de cigarrillo que "cada año produce entre 20 mil y 25 mil muertes en Colombia".
Estos son algunos de los principales artículos de la Ley Antitabaco:
ARTÍCULO 3. Con el objetivo de salvaguardar la salud pública y evitar el acceso de menores de edad al tabaco y sus derivados, prohíbase la fabricación e importación de cigarrillos en cajetillas o presentaciones que contengan menos de diez (10) unidades.Parágrafo: A partir de los dos (2) años siguientes a la vigencia de la presente ley se prohíbe la venta por unidad de productos de tabaco o sus derivados.
ARTÍCULO 13. Empaquetado y etiquetado. El empaquetado y etiquetado de productos de tabaco o sus derivados no podrán a) ser dirigidos a menores de edad o ser especialmente atractivos para estos; b) sugerir que fumar contribuye al éxito atlético o deportivo, la popularidad, al éxito profesional o al éxito sexual. c) contener publicidad falsa o engañosa recurriendo a expresiones tales como cigarrillos "suaves", "ligeros", "light", "Mild", o "bajo en alquitrán, nicotina y monóxido de carbono".
Parágrafo 1. En todos los productos de cigarrillo, tabaco y sus derivados, se deberá expresar clara e inequívocamente, en la imagen o en el texto, según sea el caso y de manera rotativa y concurrente frases de advertencia y pictogramas, cuya rotación se hará como mínimo anualmente, según la reglamentación que expida el Ministerio de la Protección Social.En los empaques de productos de tabaco comercializados en el país, dichas frases de advertencia y pictogramas deberán aparecer en las superficies de cada una de las dos (2) caras principales, ocupando el 30% del área de cada cara; el texto será en castellano en un recuadro de fondo blanco y borde negro con tipo de letra Helvética 14 puntos en Negro, que será ubicado paralelamente en la parte inferior del empaque.
Parágrafo 2.Todas las cajetillas y empaques de cigarrillos utilizados para la entrega del producto al consumidor final, importados para ser comercializados en Colombia deberán incluir en una de las caras laterales el país de origen y la palabra "importado para Colombia", escritos en letra capital y en un tamaño no inferior a 4 puntos.El Ministerio de la Protección Social dentro de los tres (3) meses siguientes a la entrada en vigencia de la presente ley, reglamentará lo necesario para el cumplimiento de la presente disposición.Parágrafo transitorio: Se concede un plazo de un año a partir de la vigencia de esta ley para aplicar el contenido de este artículo.ARTÍCULO 15. Publicidad en vallas y similares. Se prohíbe a toda persona natural o jurídica la fijación de vallas, pancartas, murales, afiches, carteles o similares móviles o fijos relacionados con la promoción del tabaco y sus derivados.ARTÍCULO 16. Promoción. Prohíbase toda forma de promoción de productos de tabaco y sus derivados.ARTÍCULO 17. Prohibición del patrocinio: Prohíbase el patrocinio de eventos deportivos y culturales por parte de las empresas productoras, importadoras o comercializadoras de productos de tabaco a nombre de sus corporaciones, fundaciones o cualquiera de sus marcas, cuando este patrocinio implique la promoción, directa o indirecta del consumo de productos de tabaco y sus derivados.
ARTÍCULO 19. Prohibición al consumo de tabaco y sus derivados. Prohíbase el consumo de Productos de Tabaco, en los lugares señalados en el presente artículo.En las áreas cerradas de los lugares de trabajo y/o de los lugares públicos, tales como: Bares, restaurantes, centros comerciales, tiendas, ferias, festivales, parques, estadios, cafeterías, discotecas, cibercafés, hoteles, ferias, pubs, casinos, zonas comunales y áreas de espera, donde se realicen eventos de manera masiva, entre otras.a) Las entidades de salud.b) Las instituciones de educación formal y no formal, en todos sus niveles.c) Museos y bibliotecas.d) Los establecimientos donde se atienden a menores de edad.e) Los medios de transporte de servicio público, oficial, escolar, mixto y privado. f) Entidades públicas y privadas destinadas para cualquier tipo de actividad industrial, comercial o de servicios, incluidas sus áreas de atención al público y salas de esperag) Áreas en donde el consumo de productos de tabaco generen un alto riesgo de combustión por la presencia de materiales inflamables, tal como estaciones de gasolina, sitios de almacenamiento de combustibles o materiales explosivos o similares.h) Espacios deportivos y culturales.
Parágrafo. Las autoridades sanitarias vigilarán el cumplimiento de este artículo, en coordinación con las autoridades de policía y demás autoridades de control.lalalalallaal -->
Tomado de:

miércoles, 22 de julio de 2009

Selección de videos y comerciales

Con cierta frecuencia realizamos una búsqueda de material multimedia sobre el control del tabaco en el mundo. Ésta es nuestra última selección:

1. Daños que causa el cigarrillo


2. Fumar: Pues va a ser que no


3. Qué hay en un cigarrillo


4. El tabaquismo: una enfermedad crónica

viernes, 3 de julio de 2009

Revista Semana, Bogotá Colombia 3 de julio de 2009

Farc y ‘paras’, beneficiarios del tráfico de cigarrillos
CONTRABANDOSegún una nueva investigación de Consorcio Internacional de Periodistas Investigativos con sede en Washington publicada esta semana, los terroristas de Colombia y de muchos lugares del mundo ‘lavan’ dinero con este comercio ilegal.
Viernes 3 Julio 2009

Las Farc y los paramilitares colombianos se están beneficiando del contrabando de cigarrillos en Colombia.

Así lo sostiene una publicación realizada por el Consorcio Internacional de Periodistas de Investigación (Icij), una agrupación de periodistas de más de 50 países diferentes, que encontró que los principales puntos de tránsito para este contrabando son Panamá y Aruba. El pasado abril, las autoridades panameñas descubrieron un cargamento de cigarrillos perteneciente a las Farc “pero no entregaron mayores detalles porque la investigación está en curso”, explica el trabajo periodístico.

Desde el año 2000, Ralf Mutschke, de la Interpol, le escribió a la Comisión de Justicia de la Cámara de Representantes norteamericana que “en Colombia, las rutas del narcotráfico se han convertido con facilidad en rutas de contrabando de cigarrillos” de acuerdo con lo publicado en uno de los artículos de la investigación ‘Terrorismo y tabaco’.

Allí, los periodistas investigadores explican que las Farc y los paramilitares usan el contrabando para ‘lavar’ el dinero del narcotráfico. Entre las marcas de cigarrillos que entran ilegalmente a Colombia desde los Estados Unidos están “especialmente Marlboros, Kents, Huelgas y Lucky”, según dijo Alvin James, de la DEA.

Otras organizaciones armadas ilegales se benefician de este comercio en todo el mundo. De acuerdo con la investigación, entre ellas están el IRA, los talibanes y Hezhollah.

El Icij inició en 1999 las investigaciones sobre el contrabando del cigarrillo en el mundo y encontró que algunas compañías del tabaco habían hecho pactos con contrabandistas para vender sus productos en el mercado negro.

Esas informaciones coincidieron y fortalecieron procesos judiciales contra grandes multinacionales tabacaleras. Desde 2004, las mayores compañías de cigarrillos, Phillip Morris y Japan Tobbaco, han acordado pagar 1650 millones de dólares a la Unión Europea por el impuesto que dejaron de pagar en sus países.

Las denuncias hechas por el Icij coincidieron con una demanda que interpusieron los departamentos colombianos ante una corte de Estados Unidos alegando que la Phillip Morris y la British American Tobacco (BAT) habán evadido impuestos y lavado dinero al haber incentivado el contrabando de cigarrillos en el país.

Después de varias apelaciones finalmente la demanda no prosperó ni contra Phillip Morris, ni contra otra multinacional tabacalera BAT porque el juez estadounidense dictaminó que según la jurisprudencia de su país, nadie podía demandar a una empresa en Estados Unidos por haber dejado de pagar impuestos en otro país.

De todos modos, la Phillip Morris y los gobernadores, la Nación y Bogotá quisieron ponerle fin a la disputa y llegaron al acuerdo la semana pasada por el cual la tabacalera pagará 200 millones de dólares a las entidades colombianas a lo largo de los próximos veinte años.

Fuentes consultadas por Semana.com aseguran que es probable que un acuerdo similar para cerrar el pleito esté en ciernes con la BAT.

Tomado de:

http://www.semana.com/noticias-mundo/farc-paras-beneficiarios-del-trafico-cigarrillos/125782.aspx

Tobacco Underground, 3 de julio de 2009.

Terrorism and tobacco

For centuries, blue-turbaned nomadic Tuareg tribesmen have led caravans of camels across the expanses of the Sahara. Laden with millet and cloth from Africa’s West Coast, the caravans traveled unmarked paths to trade for salt and dates in Timbuktu, across the sand plains of Niger, and into the mountain oasis of the Algerian south.

Smugglers take the same routes today — driving SUVs along paved roads or with guidance from the Tuareg and satellite phones — to move weapons, drugs, and, increasingly, humans — through the Sahara for transport across the Mediterranean Sea. The paths are no longer known as the Salt Roads of the Tuareg, but as the “Marlboro Connection,” named after the most lucrative contraband along this 2,000-mile corridor.

Among those who control this underground trade is al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algeria-based terrorist organization widely believed to have been backed by Osama Bin Laden. Descended from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (known by its French acronym, GSPC) the group has hundreds of members and is blamed for a bloody campaign of bombings, murders, and kidnappings across North Africa and Europe. The lead smuggler, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, 37, is blamed for the 2003 kidnappings of 32 European tourists and the 2006 murder of 13 Algerian customs officials. “They are a significant threat,” says Lorenzo Vidino, author of Al Qaeda in Europe. “Of all Islamic terrorist groups, they have the most extensive and sophisticated network in Europe… And among their activities, smuggling is particularly important.”


Military officials and scholars say cigarette smuggling, in fact, has provided the bulk of financing for AQIM. The money comes not directly from smuggling, but from charging protection fees to others moving the untaxed cigarettes through the Sahara. The most smuggled brand is Marlboro, followed by Gauloises and American Legend, as well as counterfeited Rym, a popular Algerian brand.

Al-Qaeda’s North Africa affiliate isn’t alone. After crackdowns on fundraising following the 9/11 attacks, terrorist groups worldwide have increasingly turned to criminal rackets, officials say. And smuggling cigarettes — either untaxed or counterfeit — has proved a particularly lucrative, low-risk way to fund operations.

Hezbollah, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda are involved in smuggling cigarettes; so are the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Terrorist financing through cigarette smuggling is “huge,” says Louise Shelley, a transnational crime expert at George Mason University and an adviser to the World Economic Forum on illicit trade. “Worldwide — it’s no exaggeration… No one thinks cigarette smuggling is too serious, so law enforcement doesn’t spend resources to go after it.”

imageMokhtar Belmokhtar has collected a litany ofnoms de guerre during his years as lead cigarette smuggler for al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, including “Emir of the Sahel” and “The Marlboro Man.”Source: Interpol“Cigarettes are easy to smuggle, easy to buy, and they have a pretty good return on the investment,” adds David Cid, a former FBI counterterrorism agent and deputy director of the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism in Oklahoma City. “Drug dogs don’t alert on your car if it’s full of Camels.” And, he notes, “The other advantage is you don’t go to jail for 50 years.”

Traditional terrorist networks aren’t the only armed groups making money from the underground cigarette trade. Insurgents and paramilitary forces are also on the take. Many of the world’s longest-running civil wars are fueled by contraband, according to a 2002 study by Stanford University’s James Fearon, and tobacco is only one of the favored commodities. Cocaine smuggling has largely propelled the FARC’s 40-year insurgency in Colombia. Diamonds have funded civil wars in Sierra Leone and Angola. And opium has fueled drawn-out conflicts in Burma and Afghanistan.

The increasing use of smuggled tobacco by terrorist and insurgent groups parallels the rapid growth of a multibillion-dollar trade in cigarette smuggling around the world. Huge tobacco black markets have arisen from New York State to Paraguay to Eastern Europe, as smugglers move cheap and counterfeit cigarettes to sell in lucrative high-tax regions. The illicit trade is fueling addiction, say health experts, by making inexpensive cigarettes widely available, while robbing governments of sorely needed tax revenue. At the same time, officials warn, the booming black markets are fueling not only some terrorist groups but dozens of organized crime gangs, who find the big profits and low risk hard to resist.

In addition to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, at least a half-dozen terrorist groups and insurgencies have profited from the black market in tobacco. Among the others:

THE IRA

Both the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the militant splinter group Real IRA have used cigarette smuggling to finance their operations. While both groups seek the unification of the island of Ireland, the Provisional IRA announced in 2005 that it would henceforward use only peaceful means. The Real IRA continues to employ terrorist tactics including robbery, bombings, and assassinations, most recently shooting dead two British soldiers in Northern Ireland in March.

“Cigarette smuggling has definitely been a major source of funding for the Provisional IRA — not only the Real IRA — and other terrorist groups in Northern Ireland,” said Rogelio Alonso Pascual, an IRA expert teaching at Madrid’s Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.

imageGraffiti in Derry, Northern Ireland, lauds the Real Irish Republican Army, which has made millions from tobacco smuggling. Courtesy of Hossam el-Hamalawy/Published under Creative Commons licenseThe Real IRA has flooded Ireland with contraband cigarettes and imported counterfeit versions of popular brands. Authorities say the group is responsible for nearly all the smuggled tobacco seized in Northern Ireland, and they say cigarette smuggling has emerged as a top funding source for the organization. Combined, the IRA groups reaped an estimated $100 million in proceeds from cigarette smuggling over a five-year period, according to a 2004 report by William Billingslea, an analyst for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

In March, a Miami man was indicted in connection to a cigarette smuggling ring with ties to the Real IRA. The arrest comes after a seven-year investigation stretching from the Canary Islands to Panama, through the port of Miami and on to Ireland and the UK. U.S. and European officials declined to comment, saying the case is “complex” and ongoing.

THE TALIBAN

imageOsama Bin Laden provided seed money for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.Source: FBIIn the restive tribal belt of Pakistan — where Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding — some of the most hunted Taliban militias collect money from cigarette smugglers in exchange for allowing Marlboro knock-offs and cheap local brands to flow into Afghanistan and China. Cigarettes have become an increasingly important source of financing for the groups, second only to the heroin trade, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

As NATO forces battled Taliban in Afghanistan, the insurgents increasingly sought sanctuary along the ungoverned border regions of Pakistan where both the Taliban and the vast majority of Pakistanis are Sunni Muslim and ethnic Pashtuns. The Khyber Agency, a border province boasting the most-traveled trade route between the two countries, is also the hotbed of cigarette counterfeiting in Pakistan.

THE PKK

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) long controlled the smuggling routes between Turkey and northern Iraq. Blamed for thousands of deaths since its inception in 1978, the leftist group comprised of Turkish Kurds has sought to establish a Marxist state in southeastern Turkey. The PKK has carried out bombings of Turkish governmental security forces and popular Turkish tourist sites.

The PKK funds itself through donations from sympathizers, trafficking in narcotics and arms smuggling, and by charging a fee for every container of cigarettes allowed to pass through its territory. Whereas the group controlled the flow of contraband cigarettes into Iraq during the 1990s, they now control the flood of counterfeit cigarettes streaming out of Iraq, according to Sharon Meltzer, an expert on cigarette smuggling and transnational crime at American University. “It’s still going on; it’s just changed direction,” she said. “Now counterfeit factories are operating openly in Iraq.”

HEZBOLLAH

Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militia and political organization, is also engaged in tobacco trafficking. The radical Shiite group receives a significant percent of its financial support from Iran, but also relies on proceeds from smuggling cigarettes and other goods.

In three connected U.S. cases since 2000, defendants tied to Hezbollah have pleaded guilty to smuggling low-tax cigarettes from North Carolina and untaxed cigarettes from New York Indian reservations to the high-tax state of Michigan. Nearly 50 defendants have faced federal charges ranging from cigarette smuggling and money laundering to material support for terrorists. Investigators say the operations made millions of dollars, some of it traced back to Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon. The network’s kingpin — Mohamad Hammoud — is serving time at a medium-security federal prison in Indiana. His projected release date: September 2135.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is investigating a number of cigarette smuggling cases that appear linked to terrorism, according to Associate Chief Counsel Jeffrey Cohen. “It’s not because terrorists like cigarettes particularly, but because it’s an easy way to finance things,” Cohen says. In most U.S. cases, groups send money through hawala, a parallel banking remittance system that relies on family, ethnic, and regional ties. Because there are few records, he adds, “it’s difficult to know how much of this is going to terrorists and how much is going to food and education.”

The use of hawala makes it exceedingly difficult to track money in such cases, agrees Phil Awe, acting chief of ATF’s alcohol and tobacco enforcement branch. “The information is anecdotal,” says Awe, who investigated the U.S. Hezbollah cases. “There are a lot of small villages [in the Middle East] where Hamas, Hezbollah, and others are ruling. If you’re sending money back to those small villages where extremist groups operate, there’s a good chance some of that money is ending up with them.”

FARC

FARC has evolved from the world’s largest, strongest, Marxist-based insurgency into what is widely seen today as a criminal outfit that is the world’s largest supplier of cocaine. The group began by charging taxes on coca-growers in FARC-controlled regions but has since developed into a self-sustaining cocaine trafficking organization.

To launder its money, FARC and other Colombian narcotraffickers use what is known as the black market peso exchange in which they smuggle drugs to the U.S. and sell the dollars to informal bankers called “peso brokers.” The peso broker in turn sells these dollars to Colombian exporters who buy U.S. goods with the laundered funds. Those export goods are then smuggled back into Colombia.

imageTo launder its money, FARC and other Colombian narcotraffickers use the black market peso exchange to launder money through imported goods. Source: U.S. Department of Justice“In Colombia, well established drug routes were easily converted into cigarette-smuggling routes,” Interpol’s Ralf Mutschke said in written testimony to the House Committee on the Judiciary in 2000. DEA’s Alvin James said U.S.-manufactured cigarettes, “especially Marlboros, Kents, and Lucky Strikes, made up a large portion of the trade goods that were smuggled into Colombia and financed by this process.”

Anyone trafficking drugs from Colombia to the United States is at least tangentially involved in smuggling cigarettes from the United States to Colombia, authorities say. Traditional drug cartels, left-wing guerrilla groups, and the equally brutal right-wing paramilitary groups jostle for market share. The players and brands have changed over the years, but investigators say the market remains the same.

The primary transit points for the cigarette black market run through Aruba and Panama. Panama customs authorities confirmed in April a seizure of cigarettes belonging to FARC, but could not provide details pending an ongoing investigation.

THE CNDP

Seven thousand miles from the coca-rich plains of Colombia, in the dense jungles of eastern Congo, rebels allegedly profit from a millionaire tobacco tycoon who recently pleaded guilty to cigarette smuggling.

imageTobacco magnate Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa has allegedly helped finance a guerrilla insurgency in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Source: The New TimesA U.N. Security Council investigative body called the Group of Expertsreported in December that Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa, a tobacco tycoon who pleaded guilty to cigarette tax evasion charges in South Africa, has been funneling money to a Congolese rebel group that has committed human rights violations including recruitment of child soldiers, mass rape, and murders.

More than five million people have died in the Congo since 1998, making it among the most lethal conflicts since World War II. The vast majority of fighting now occurs in the east between three opposing forces: the Congolese military, a Hutu-backed rebel group, and a Tutsi-backed rebel group called The Congres National Pour la Defense du Peuple (CNDP). Led by Laurent Nkunda, the CNDP has perpetuated serious human rights abuses that include mass murder, torture, rape, forced recruitment of children, and slavery, according to the U.N.’s Group of Experts.

Rujugiro owns Mastermind Tobacco Company, which produces Yes cigarettes, and Congo Tobacco Company, which produces Supermatch cigarettes, according to company filings. Rujugiro has cigarette factories across central and eastern Africa, as well as tobacco fields in many sub-Saharan countries. He also has factories and transport companies in Dubai, and has stakes in banking, oil, real estate, and construction companies across Africa. Rujugiro is also an adviser to Rwandan president Paul Kagame, according to the U.N. findings.

The Group of Experts has uncovered a series of e-mails and individuals who claim that Rujugiro has been supporting the CNDP through cash payments and supplies, and that he pays the CNDP to allow the traffic of his untaxed cigarettes. Rujugiro has denied the allegations of smuggling and CNDP ties in a post on his website and in a letter to a Rwandan newspaper.

Port authorities seized 97 million contraband Supermatch cigarettes in Ghana earlier this year, investigators say. The cigarettes were manufactured in the United Arab Emirates, stamped with fake “Sale in Ivory Coast” stamps, and destined for Mali, where they are not licensed for sale. Supermatch, meanwhile, has become the most smuggled brand into Uganda.

Rujugiro’s South Africa operation was shuttered in 2006, when the South African Revenue Service froze the company’s assets and filed fraud charges against him and his son. Rujugiro left the country and was arrested at Heathrow airport in London last fall. He settled the case this month before being extradited, agreeing to pay a $7 million fine and to comply with tax laws in future.

STANCHING THE FLOW

At the core of the problem, say scholars, are the high profits of tobacco smuggling, which rival those of narcotics, and the relative cheapness of conducting a terrorist operation. In many cigarette smuggling cases, millions of dollars are at stake. A shipping container containing 10 million cigarettes costs as little as $100,000 to produce in China, but can bring as much as $2 million in the United States. Cigarette smuggling bolstered the entire economy of Montenegro during the 1990s.

Contrast that with the small amounts it takes to conduct a terrorist attack. “Part of the problem is that it takes so little to finance an operation,” says Gary LaFree, director of the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. British authorities, for example, estimated the 2005 London subway bombing that killed 52 people succeeded on a budget of less than $15,000. Al-Qaeda’s entire 9/11 operation cost between $400,000 and $500,000, according to the final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

To end the flow of criminal money to terrorist groups and insurgencies, experts say, will mean cutting off the flow of contraband — whether narcotics or tobacco. Terrorism and criminal finance investigator Larry Johnson, with BERG Associates, notes that it’s much easier to crack down on the flow of legal products like tobacco. “You need to ensure that the products are being sold through legitimate channels through legitimate distributors — that they’re not committing willful blindness,” he says. “The contraband is fairly easy to deal with because it’s in the power of the distributors and producers to control the process. This is actually one of those few problems that is fixable.”

Alain Lallemand and Aamir Latif contributed to this story.

Tomado de: http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/tobacco/articles/entry/1441/