Cigarettes Portrayed as Currency of Crime

Los Angeles Times ^ | November 5, 2002 | Michael A. Hiltzik and Henry Weinstein

[liberallarry]

Once a month for many years, a group of travelers bribed their way into Colombia via a remote border crossing from Venezuela, met with their contacts and then bribed their way home, the better to leave no record of the trip in their passports.

The illicit commodity they were trading was not cocaine, as might be expected, but cigarettes.

So contends a lawsuit filed last week in a U.S. court by the European Union. According to the suit, the clandestine travelers were employees of companies affiliated with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Their goal, the EU says, was to receive cash for their products without revealing that the source of the money was the narcotics trade.

[liberallarry]

More top-level corporate criminality? How wide-spread is it?

[Sender]

I can see the public service ads now: "Cigarette money supports terrible things. If you buy cigarettes, you may too." demonizesmokers.com /satire