Sec. 3. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: The illicit trade in tobacco products or their precursors is a multibillion dollar business that fuels organized crime, fosters public corruption, undermines public health goals, and finances terrorist groups that threaten global security and stability. According to an estimate by the World Health Organization, one in every 10 cigarettes smoked is illegal. The Center for Public Integrity states, while one 40-foot container of cigarettes (containing 10 million sticks) can be produced in China for just $100,000, the street value of such a container smuggled into the United States is up to $2 million. .
According to the International Criminal Police Organization (commonly known as Interpol ), the trade in illicit cigarettes accounts for 11.6 percent of global consumption, equaling 657,000,000,000 cigarettes a year. According to the Department of State report entitled The Global Illicit Trade in Tobacco: A Threat to National Security , cigarette smuggling enables corruption and undermines good governance. According to that Department of State report, illicit trade in tobacco products or their precursors costs governments and taxpayers between $40,000,000,000 and $50,000,000,000 annually in tax revenues.
According to that Department of State report, the illicit trade in tobacco products or their precursors facilitates other crimes and provides funding for additional criminal activities, including money laundering, bulk cash smuggling, and the trafficking in humans, weapons, drugs, antiquities, diamonds, and counterfeit goods. The report entitled Illicit Trade: Converging Criminal Networks by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development stated that cigarettes present a high-profit margin and are among the most commonly traded products on the black market due to the relative ease of production and movement, along with low detection rates and penalties.
According to the Department of State report entitled, The Global Illicit Trade in Tobacco: A Threat to National Security , illicit trade in tobacco products or their precursors can be transnational, with proceeds earned domestically and sent overseas to finance attacks against United States interests, or earned domestically by foreign actors who can operate more easily from within the country. The Center for the Analysis of Terrorism reports that nearly 15 terrorist organizations throughout the world regularly have recourse in large proportions to smuggling and counterfeiting cigarettes to be financed, in particular the Pakistani Taliban, Lashkar-E–Taiba, Al-Qaida au Maghreb Islamique, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, and the Irish Republican Army.