Jump to full article: Agence France Presse (AFP) (fr), 2009-06-29
Intro: 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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