The Taliban: Across the tribal belt of Pakistan, Taliban militias collect money from cigarette smugglers in exchange for allowing counterfeit Marlboro and cheap local brands 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.
The PKK: Charges a fee for every container of cigarettes allowed to pass through its territory. Controlled the flow of contraband cigarettes into Iraq during the 1990s; now controls the flood of counterfeit cigarettes out of the same country.
Farc: The world’s largest supplier of cocaine often uses its well established drug smuggling routes to move American cigarettes according to evidence given to the US Senate.
The CNDP: In 2008, the UN claimed that The Congres National Pour la Defense du Peuple, a Tutsi-backed rebel group accused of atrocities, was being funded by Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa, a tobacco tycoon who pleaded guilty to cigarette tax evasion charges in South Africa.
Sources: the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
