Terror Financing

“Roughly 15 terrorist organizations around the world regularly use cigarette smuggling to fund their operations. These include the Taliban in Pakistan, al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and ISIS. Several factors have encouraged terrorist organizations to engage in tobacco smuggling to increase their funding. Firstly, cigarettes are easy to transport and dispose of. In addition, it is easy to counterfeit documents for smuggling cigarettes before they are sold. Note that profits from cigarette smuggling are high compared to the limited risk entailed in smuggling. According to a study published by the France-based Center for Terrorist Analysis, cigarette trafficking represents more than 20% of the sources of funding for terrorist organizations.”

Source: Addiyar: Cigarette Trafficking Accounts For More Than 20% Of Terrorist Organizations' Funding