Posted on 06/08/2004 5:05:45 AM PDT by general_re
Smugglers with ties to terrorist groups are acquiring millions of dollars from illegal cigarette sales and funneling the cash to organizations such as al Qaeda and Hezbollah, federal law enforcement officials say, prompting a nationwide crackdown on black market tobacco.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has more than 300 open cases of illicit cigarette trafficking -- including several with terrorist links -- up from only a handful five years ago, ATF sources said.
"This is a major priority for us," said Michael Bouchard, assistant director of the ATF. "The deeper we dig into these cases, the more ties to terrorism we're discovering."
The lucrative trafficking of cigarettes, known as cigarette diversion, is a simple scheme but difficult to stop, law enforcement officials say. The traffickers purchase a large volume of cigarettes in states where the tax is low, such as Virginia and North Carolina, transport them up Interstate 95 to states such as Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and then sell them at a discount without paying the higher cigarette taxes in those states.
With huge profits -- and low penalties for arrest and conviction -- illicit cigarette trafficking now has begun to rival drug trafficking as a funding choice for terrorist groups, said William Billingslea, an ATF senior intelligence analyst who has studied the issue extensively.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I'll have to give it up or mix my own.
Time to ban cigarettes and start blaming them for terrorism like they do marijuana. In fact, lets just ban everything while we're at it.
WOD ping.
A British study found that SIDS deaths could be reduced by two-thirds if parents did not smoke.***
A U.S. analysis** of over 100 reports on pædiatric diseases concluded that childrens exposure to tobacco smoke is responsible for up to:
13% of ear infection
(approximately 220,000 ear infections in Canadian children)*
26% of tympanostomy tube insertions
(approximately 16,500 in Canada)
24% of tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies
(approx. 2,100 Canadian operations)
13% of asthma cases
(approx. 52,200 cases in Canada)
16% of physician visits for cough
(approx. 200,000 visits in Canada)
20% of all lung infections in children under 5
(approx. 43,600 cases of bronchitis in Canada and 19,000 cases of pneumonia in Canada)
136-212 childhood deaths from lower respiratory infection
(approx. 13-20 in Canada)
148 childhood deaths from fires started by tobacco products
(approx. 15 in Canada)
1868-2708 SIDS deaths
(approx. 180-270 in Canada)
* the number of Canadian cases is extrapolated from U.S. estimates
[Samet, JM. Synthesis: The Health Effects of Tobacco Smoke Exposure on Children. January 7, 1999]
[California EPA. Final Report: Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Sept. 1997]
** Joseph diFranza and Robert Lew, Morbidity and Mortality in Children Associated with the Use of Tobacco Products by Other People, Paediatrics, 1996, 97:560-568].
Actually, the deduction gives too much power to the gov't over churches. Everyone would be better off.
After all, by giving the churches tax exempt status, we are advocating religious activities by sticking the non-worshipers with the tax bills.
Except that the logic for churches is they are supposed to provide services that otherwise would be supplied by gov't thereby lowering the cost of govt.
I mean, I don't tithe much to "tax exempt" churches so it wouldn't hurt me.
Folks don't tithe to churches. They tithe to God. Everything you own belongs to God.
Please post the proof. Personally, I'd much rather have a tariff than a tobacco tax.
"responsible for up to:"
Could be zero or it could be the number you posted. Much like Reagen was responsible for up to 500,000 AIDS deaths.
This whole thread has gotten bizarre.........
The point of it is that extortionate taxes create black markets which invite unsavory characters to participate in illegal activities...........
The only ones at fault here are those imposing the ever increasing taxes. I don't blame the bootleggers or their customers.....I blame the impsers of the taxes for the problem.
It wouldn't surprise me if they are spending more to deal with the bootlegging and smuggling than they are making through the increased taxes.
It is not how much one tithes, it is how much one deducts on their tax return that determins the amount of hurt the elimination of a deduction causes.
This thread is about cigarette taxes causing smuggling..not about SHS.....
"Everything you own belongs to God."
Therefore, you advocate increasing the Government confiscation of God's property? Just in the name of keeping more of what you have? You would deprive God of his belongings so you could reduce your payments to the government?
Thanks for getting us back on track. Sorry for the derailment I caused.......I agree with your post, BTW.
When was the last time someone was refused service because they were a foreigner ?
You get weirder and weirder.
This occurs with all sorts of products that have an excise tax on them not just cigarettes. Ozone depleting chemicals, tires, diesel, sports equipment to name a few. When the country was founded, the only taxes it had as a base was excise taxes, tobacco taxes was one of them. These excise taxes provided the economic conditions that allowed us to create a booming economy.
Even back then it was not without bootlegging.
The only ones at fault here are those imposing the ever increasing taxes. .
The taxes are being imposed on a luxury item which folks can choose to use or choose to avoid. No one is required to smoke and therefore the tax is voluntary.
I don't blame the bootleggers or their customers.....I blame the impsers of the taxes for the problem.
When there is a black market, bootleggers will surely follow as well as gov't laws to stop it. The current black market isn't going to last because the low tax states will increase their taxes.
It wouldn't surprise me if they are spending more to deal with the bootlegging and smuggling than they are making through the increased taxes.
Doubtful. All they need to do is go after a small percentage in order to scare the honest folks.
The nations are God's.
I don't see that as a good measure of esteem.
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