Political and security instability put fire under North Africa illegal tobacco trade

The trafficking of tobacco is a multibillion-dollar business worldwide. One of the major global smuggling routes flows through the Balkans in Eastern Europe to North Africa, where a lack of security, high corruption, porous borders, and little cooperation among countries has created fertile ground for this trade.

In 2017, over 10 billion cigarettes manufactured in the free-trade zone of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates were smuggled to North Africa either directly or via Greece and the Balkans. Of these, nearly four billion were shipped to Tunisia and two billion to Libya. Some of these cigarettes were then trafficked back into illicit markets in Western Europe.

Strategically located between Southern Europe, the Gulf states and the Sahel, Libya is an attractive trafficking hub for smugglers. The country’s chaotic political and security context has compromised the rule of law, enabling syndicates from South-Eastern Europe and the Italian mafia to distribute illicit cigarettes locally and regionally.

The volumes of contraband trafficked into North Africa are staggering. Between 2014 and 2018, over 20 million packs of Cleopatra cigarettes were produced annually in Albania and exported to Libya. Once there, they were smuggled across the border into Egypt. In 2015, Greek authorities intercepted a cargo ship loaded with 146 tonnes of Cleopatra cigarettes bound for Libya. In 2016 alone, 11.5 million Cleopatra cigarette shipments were exported from Albania to Libya through Malta. 

A Montenegrin journalist told the Enact project that 1.5 billion cigarettes were smuggled from Greece to Libya in 2017. And in 2018, Maltese customs seized 37 million counterfeit cigarettes linked to the Italian mafia and destined for Libya.

Tunisia is also a favoured destination for smugglers, who move their product either directly from Southern Europe or Libya. Between 2018 and 2020, Tunisian customs intercepted 15 million packets of contraband cigarettes.

The power vacuum created by the fall of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the 2011 revolution has undermined Tunisia’s rule of law. Criminals no longer fear the police or the ill-equipped security forces, and the number of smugglers and traffickers has increased as a result.

Over the past decade, ordinary Tunisians have begun engaging in corruption, which has become endemic. Smugglers often view cooperation with state officials and security services as the safest way to guarantee their protection. Information and payments are exchanged for the ability to pursue their illegal activities.

Another factor driving the demand for trafficked cigarettes in Tunisia is the price difference between locally manufactured or genuine foreign brands, and illegal imports. Since Tunisia’s government has a monopoly on the tobacco industry, the market is highly regulated. But corrupt individuals involved in the legal cigarette market deliberately create stock shortages, increasing the demand for smuggled and counterfeit smokes.