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• Cutler Bay man smuggles cigarettes through the Port of Miami and goes to prison 

So this is what a decade of international conspiracy with European underworld kingpins gets you? An empty bank account, a blue-collar ranch house in Cutler Bay with two unpaid mortgages, and a date with a federal judge.

For Roman Vidal, a 58-year-old with a thick mane of gray hair and a white mustache, that about sums it up. To that meager list, Vidal also can add 24 months in federal prison, three years' probation, and a $1.5 million fine -- the sentence U.S. District Judge Alan Gold handed down last week.

All in all, it's an inglorious finish for a man who led the largest cigarette-smuggling ring busted in the Magic City, a scheme that funneled more than 20 million black-market smokes through the Port of Miami, with some of the proceeds perhaps funding deadly Irish terrorists. . . .

Vidal's European contacts were helping to finance the Real IRA, a splinter terror group in Northern Ireland. A few weeks after Vidal's arrest, the group massacred two soldiers and shot two pizza delivery men outside a British base near Belfast.

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• ATF stings put 250M illegal cigarettes on streets  

Undercover ATF agents in Virginia have funneled more than 250 million cigarettes onto the nation's streets in the past three years through black market sales targeting smugglers, an Associated Press review has found.

Authorities say the flood of government-provided smokes - a pack and a half for every man, woman and child in New York City, the smugglers' main destination - leads them to organized crime rings and can even cut off financing for terrorists. The stings by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have yielded about five dozen federal arrests, albeit none on terror charges.

Many of those cigarettes undoubtedly wind up in the mouths of minors, since black market vendors have no reason to turn away teenage purchasers.

Despite that, government auditors and anti-tobacco groups want the ATF to do even more.

"Smuggling reduces prices, so it increases use, especially among kids, who are more price-sensitive" in their purchases, said Eric Lindblom, director of policy research for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. . . .

In September, the Justice Department's inspector general found that tobacco diversion cases account for just 1 percent of ATF's caseload and 2 percent of its budget. In large swaths of the country, ATF has not conducted any investigations of cigarette smuggling for at least five years, the audit determined.

A notable exception, the AP found, was the Eastern District of Virginia, which includes Richmond, northern Virginia and the Interstate 95 corridor. The area is a hotbed for the crime because while 42 states and the District of Columbia have collectively passed more than 80 tax hikes on cigarettes since 2002, Virginia and North Carolina, the heart of tobacco country, still tax tobacco at only pennies per pack.

"The profit margin on this is ridiculous," . . .

All told, the AP found undercover sales of more than 250 million cigarettes in the last few years. The AP review did not include state charges - authorities said that the vast majority of cases brought in state courts involve relatively small quantities of cigarettes.

While 250 million is a large number, it pales to the 469 million cigarettes produced every day by Philip Morris USA at its two plants in Virginia and North Carolina last year. . . .

While there have been terrorists who have made money through cigarette smuggling, it's far more common to find smugglers linked to organized crime

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• Cigarette smuggling operation revealed 

Unable so far to mount a terrorism case against a Northwest Knoxville convenience store operator captured on audiotape discussing vague plans of jihad, federal authorities are now revealing the major stolen cigarette smuggling operation they say he headed.

In a series of documents unsealed in the past two weeks in U.S. District Court, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore allege four Middle Eastern men were involved in a network peddling cigarettes stolen in Tennessee, affixed with fake tax stamps and then hawked to convenience stores and small grocers in Detroit.

Heading up the operation, they contend, was Hazam Ali Ahmed, 35, who operated the Central Convenient Store on Keith Avenue. . . .

Authorities now are turning back to the 2006 cigarette smuggling case that apparently put Ahmed on their radar screen. Court documents unsealed in recent days show that Jack S. Yacou and Ala Abed Asmaro have struck deals with the U.S. Attorney's Office to plead guilty to their respective roles and provide evidence against Ahmed. Another man, Bahi Aziz Khoshiko, is accused in a complaint filed by FBI Agent David Bukowski of being a member of the smuggling operation but a records search netted no formal charges filed against him. It's unclear which of those three, if any, is the informant who agreed to secretly tape Ahmed.

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Blowing Smoke at Terrorists 

Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, according to the 9-11 commission report, was the mastermind of the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Nashiri was also the target of an "unauthorized" CIA interrogation technique (that had not been legally vetted by the Justice Department) that is described in a May 7, 2004, CIA inspector general's report that was partially declassified by the Obama administration this week.

CIA officers blew smoke in Nashiri's face, according to the report, and they used cigars.

The IG's office described this smoke-blowing as one of several "unauthorized or undocumented techniques" it discovered had been used in isolated incidents by CIA employees interrogating high-level al-Qaida terrorists.

"An Agency (redacted phrase) interrogator admitted that, in December 2002, he and another (redacted phrase) smoked cigars and blew cigar smoke in al-Nashiri's face during the interrogation," said the IG report. . . .

Having survived his exposure to second-hand smoke, Nashiri was exposed to the most serious unauthorized interrogation technique documented by the IG.

"Sometime between 28 December 2002 and 1 January 2003, the debriefer used an unloaded semi-automatic handgun as a prop to frighten al-Nashiri into disclosing information," said the IG report.

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• The Taliban diversify into tobacco  

LAHORE // The smuggling of tobacco is helping to fuel the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan, according to analysts and officials. While the poppy trade still contributes nearly half of the funds funnelled to the Taliban - both in Afghanistan and Pakistan - officials now believe the militants are increasingly turning to other sources, including tobacco sales and smuggling, kidnappings, logging and mining.

"We believe tobacco has been second only to drugs as a source of finance to the Pakistani Taliban," David Kaplan, the editorial director of the US-based Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a non-profit organisation based in Washington, DC, said in a report last month.

With the US and Pakistan both engaged in fighting the Taliban, there is a growing consensus among officials that the only way to defeat the militants is to hit them where it hurts the most - their pockets.

But that is becoming increasingly difficult as the Taliban appear adept at switching sources of financing. . . .

But with efforts by the US to wipe out poppy farming in Afghanistan showing some success, and sanctions by the Pakistani government on charitable donations, the Taliban have been forced to look elsewhere for financial support.

According to the World Health Organization, cigarette and tobacco smuggling provides about $40bn a year to extremist groups, including the Taliban. Analysts inside Pakistan estimate the group receives about 20 per cent of its funding from counterfeit cigarette production and smuggling.

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Miami's Black-Market Cigarette King Pleads Guilty 

Earlier this summer, New Times brought you the story of Roman Vidal, a 54-year-old Cutler Bay resident accused of funneling millions of dollars' worth of black-market cigarettes through the Port of Miami to criminal gangs in Europe.

​Just before 11 a.m. today, Vidal pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and smuggling.

Speaking in heavily accented English, Vidal admitted his role in planning at least four shipments of millions of black-market smokes to Europe. Vidal hid the cigs beneath wooden flooring, yarn, and building insulation inside shipping containers and then skipped out on the millions in taxes. . . .

Although federal investigators say some of Vidal's profits went to the Irish terrorist group the Real IRA -- a violent gang responsible for the murder of two British soldiers earlier this year -- he didn't face any charges of supporting terrorism.

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• Old IRA gun routes used to smuggle in cigarettes 

The same smuggling routes used by the IRA to import weapons from Libya in the Eighties are now being used to import huge amounts the counterfeit cigarettes that are flooding the Irish market at a cost of between €500m and €1bn a year in lost taxes.

The dissident republicans from the "Real" IRA, based in north Louth and south Armagh, are believed to be the biggest smugglers but appear to be working alongside retired Provisional IRA bosses who are still heavily involved in smuggling.

Gardai are concerned that some portion of the massive profits being racked up by the dissidents are going to pay for weapons to carry out attacks on PSNI officers. The dissidents have been recruiting young men in Catholic areas in the North and last month were responsible for stirring up sectarian violence.

The State appears to be unable to prevent the importation of the counterfeit cigarettes, which are manufactured in China. Investigations by Interpol and other agencies have shown that Irish smugglers are sourcing their cigarettes in China, via the internet, then having them smuggled to Tripoli in Libya, probably using the same contacts in the military there who supplied the IRA with weapons in the early Eighties.

Sources say the cigarettes are shipped via Malta then by sea or land in containers to Irish ports. The fact that the Irish Customs only have one container-scanner makes Irish ports an ideal destination for smuggling. Gardai believe that the smuggling is so large and well organised that they are also trans-shipping cigarettes and tobacco into Britain.

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• AUDIO: Tobacco Fuels Addiction, And Terrorism 

Fresh Air from WHYY, July 21, 2009 -- Cigarette smuggling is a lucrative, low-risk business that is sometimes used to help fund terrorist organizations around the world, according to a new report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The report, "Tobacco Underground," charts the paths of smugglers working for the Taliban, Hezbollah, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA) and others.

David Kaplan, editorial director at The Center for Public Integrity and editor of the report, explains how the multibillion-dollar business fuels organized crime, robs governments of tax money and spurs addiction.

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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 . . .

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.

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• The Taliban and Tobacco 

As government sanctions restrict traditional sources of terrorist financing, Pakistani militant groups increasingly rely on proceeds from counterfeit cigarette production and smuggling, intelligence sources say. Although income figures are rough estimates at best, profits from the illicit cigarette trade account for as much as 20 percent of funding for these militant groups, second only to heroin production, according to terrorism experts in Pakistan. "Taliban and other militant groups do not have to do much," says Ikram Sehgal, a senior defense and security analyst who heads SMS Security, Pakistan's leading private security company. "They simply receive taxes on a regular basis from owners of illegal and legal cigarette factories and later for the safe passage they provide to the convoys."

Sahib Ayub Afridi: local philanthropist, convicted drug smuggler, and top cigarette counterfeiter in Pakistan.The Afridi case is part of a broader trend of terrorism groups relying on contraband to finance their activities, experts say. Even if efforts to cut the region's booming heroin production are successful -- an unlikely prospect -- the lucrative tobacco trade suggests how hard it will be to stanch funding to terrorists and insurgents in areas far from government control. The world's longest-running civil wars are fueled by contraband according to a 2002 study by Stanford University's James Fearon. Cocaine smuggling has largely propelled FARC's 40-year insurgency in Colombia. Diamonds have funded civil wars in Sierra Leone and Angola. Opium has led to drawn-out conflicts in Afghanistan and Burma.

In the badlands of the Afghan-Pakistan border, the challenges are particularly daunting.

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Countries mull ban on selling cigarettes on Net, crackdown on smuggling via free trade zones  

More than 130 countries met Monday to consider whether to ban the sale of tobacco on the Internet as part of an effort to crack down on the multibillion dollar market in contraband cigarettes.

As well as stopping direct sales to consumers, the draft treaty being considered in Geneva this week could ban online vendors from offering raw tobacco or cigarette manufacturing equipment.

Parties to the U.N.-backed 2005 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which the U.S. has signed but yet to ratify, are also debating how to stop free trade zones from being used as smuggling hubs for untaxed and fake cigarettes.

Experts estimate the market in illicit cigarettes accounts for more than 10 percent of tobacco sales worldwide, costing governments $40-50 billion in lost tax revenue each year.

A report by the Washington-based U.S. Center for Public Integrity identifies China, Paraguay and Ukraine as among the major sources of contraband tobacco products.

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Duty free sales targeted on opening day of WHO negotiations on illicit tobacco  

The future of duty free tobacco sales came under the microscope yesterday as the third session of negotiations on the World Health Organization (WHO) Protocol to combat illicit trade in tobacco products opened in Geneva.

The discussion took place during the first stages of the WHO International Negotiating Body meeting (INB3), which began with opening statements by the national delegations.

An international lobby, driven by the European Travel Retail Council ETRC and the International Association of Airport Duty Free Stores (IAADFS) and supported by bodies such as the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA), ASUTIL, the Middle East Duty Free Association, Airports Council International and the International Air Transport Association, has led a global campaign to protect the travel retail channel's right to sell duty free tobacco to international travellers. . . .

Hume Brophy reported that Cuba was today awarded the FCA 'dirty ashtray award' for its passionate defence of the duty free industry.

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Cigarette smuggling finances 'terrorist' groups: report 

Cigarette and tobacco smuggling finances militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and saps about 40 billion dollars a year from government budgets, a report and campaigners said Monday.

The claims were made as 160 countries resumed talks at the World Health Organisation on expanding an international anti-smoking treaty to clamp down on the illicit trade in tobacco.

Apart from issues such as enforcement and coordination, the 10-day preparatory negotiations are also examining a possible halt to duty free sales of cigarettes or measures against Internet sales, WHO documents showed.

An alliance of some 350 anti-tobacco campaign groups said in a statement that concerted action against the contraband and counterfeit cigarettes trade would far outweigh the 40.5 billion dollars in lost tax revenue.

Some 11.6 percent of the global cigarette market was illicit, equivalent to some 657 billion cigarettes a year, the International Union Against Tobacco and Lung Disease estimated in a report.

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• Terrorism and Tobacco--How Cigarette Smuggling Finances Jihad and Insurgency Worldwide  

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. . . .

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.”

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Cigarette Smuggling Finances "Terrorist" Groups - Campaigners  

GENEVA (AFP)--Cigarette and tobacco smuggling is financing militant or extremist groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and sapping about $40 billion a year from government budgets, campaigners said Monday.

The allegations were made as 160 countries resumed talks at the World Health Organization on expanding an international antismoking treaty to clamp down on the illicit trade in tobacco. . . .

An alliance of some 350 anti-tobacco campaign groups said in a statement that concerted action against the contraband and counterfeit cigarettes trade would far outweigh the $40.5 billion in lost tax revenue.

Some 11.6% of the global cigarette market was illicit, equivalent to some 657 billion cigarettes a year, the International Union against Tobacco and Lung Disease estimated in a report.

Researchers also alleged that "half a dozen terrorist" or militant groups, including the Pakistani Taliban, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Hezbollah, left-wing FARC rebels in Colombia and the Real IRA in Northern Ireland, rely on black market tobacco for revenue.

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