Cigarettes.
Cigarette taxes.
Regulations
Advertising.
Quality control.
Makes a pack of cigarettes expensive. Some places more than others.
Taxes
About 57,000 cartons of cigarettes can fit on a 53' tractor trailer.
That's 1,140,000 packs.
$5.21 for a pack of Camel Crushes in Missouri X 1,140,000= $5,939,400
$14.99 in New York City X 1,140,000= $17,088,600 ( I checked advertised prices in both Missouri and New York City this morning)
If you move a truckload of Missouri cigarettes to NYC you could make a profit of :
$11,149,200
45% of cigarettes smoked in California and 54% smoked in New York are smuggled in.
But not always from other states or legit.
A lot are counterfeit, made in China, SE Asia, former Russian Republics, Southern Europe
A pack of counterfeit Marlboros made in China are 20 cents. Tax stamps for any U.S. state included.
The middleman sells a carton here for $15.00, so 75 cents a pack
$14.24 of profit for each pack in NYC.
1,140,000 X $14.24 =
16,233,600 million US$ profit for one truckload, one night of work
A couple of days ago the ATF made the second largest tobacco bust in history in Arkansas, but they gave the public a deflated number for value.
"A truck driver was arrested in Arkansas after authorities say they discovered nearly 28,000 packs of untaxed cigarettes in his vehicle.
Arkansas Tobacco Control and the Central Arkansas Drug Task Force agents arrested driver Emile Bangoura, 35, of Atlanta, after an April 10 traffic stop on his semi-truck revealed the contraband cigarettes, authorities said in a news release. It was the second-largest seizure in Arkansas Tobacco Control history.
The cigarettes were valued at more than $243,000.*"
A lot of these places do their manufacturing underground, there was just a huge bust in Malaga Spain of an underground manufacturing facility, and this from last year.
"Last year in Spain, authorities busted an underground illegal cigarette factory. The organized crime network behind the operation is suspected of large-scale cigarette trafficking with profits estimated at $647,000 per week.."
"counterfeit cigarettes often contain higher levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide than genuine cigarettes, and may contain contaminants such as sand and packaging materials."
*But we know better
28,000 Chinese cigarette packs of Camels cost 75 cents each = $21,000 cost
$14.99 X 28000= $421,000 value
Drive those to NYC and that's $14.24 X 28,000 =~$400,000 Profit.
Those little out of the way shops that only have a few packs stacked up at a time or under the counter and they have American tax stamps and taste a little funny?
I haven't even mentioned moving cigarettes from Indian country out to taxable retail.( that will be collected but will never be sent to the government)
The store across the street from me sold counterfeit cigarettes.
I asked my friend who worked there why they all of a sudden had hundreds of half gallon hollow lawn frogs from Vietnam. Nobody was ever going to buy those up. Cigarettes. You could fit 12-13 packs in each one before you shipped them over hidden in crap.
It's big business with cutthroat competition, illegal stuff all around, rivalries, international organized crime and murder.
Just like drugs.
That's why police get enthusiastic about people selling looseys it's not just about somebody selling a few cigarettes, there's a lot behind it
There. You can't ever say I didn't help you out.
**obviously there's other expenses, middleman, bribes, rent for warehouses Etc. And the math might be a little favorable to my point.
Illicit cigarette trade - Wikipedia
Counterfeit Cigarettes: Illicit Trade & Taxes | Tax Foundation
Taxation plays a key role in driving illicit trade. People respond to incentives, and sizable price markups for legal cigarettes create incentives for tax avoidance.
taxfoundation.org
