The Center for Public Integrity – a group of investigative journalists – has a bunch of articles and other resources on the black market for tobacco. There’s a whole lot of information there, including an interactive map of smuggling routes and production points.
The authors seem to think smuggling tobacco is the worst thing since the holocaust, pointing to connections to organized crime and terrorism. See this from the introduction, for example:
The illicit trafficking of tobacco is a multibillion-dollar business today, fueling organized crime and corruption, robbing governments of needed tax money[!], and spurring addiction to a deadly product. So profitable is the trade that tobacco is the world’s most widely smuggled legal substance. This booming business now stretches from counterfeiters in China and renegade factories in Russia to Indian reservations in New York and warlords in Pakistan and North Africa.
Of course, a black market is a very natural consequence of the obscenely high sin taxes governments around the world are currently charging. While we should condemn any violence perpetrated by tobacco smugglers (and violent types are likely to get involved in any business constantly under threat from government violence), we should applaud the fact that so many people around the world are unwilling to submit to unjust government control. While engaging in illegal trade or otherwise ignoring the state will often provoke a violent response, it also makes stupid laws harder to maintain.
Maybe somebody can use the information provided by these journalists to discover a business opportunity. (Hint: the New Zealand market doesn’t seem particularly well-served.)
If you like smoking, you might be interested in the Fr33 Smokers or Just Say ‘No!’ to Healthism groups on Fr33 Agents Social. If you like black and gray markets, you might be interested in the Agora! group or the excellent wiki site Agorism.info.
Brad Taylor is a graduate student in Political Science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He blogs at 
Very nice find, Brad!
Back in 2003 in Santa Cruz, California, there was one shop that was selling untaxed cigarettes manufactured in Paraguay. The quality was rather poor, but at about $15/carton instead of the usual $35, passing on top quality was a rather easy decision to make.
Han Solo was a smuggler before he helped destroy the Death Star, by the way.
I was once a tobacco smuggler, in another state, maybe even in another lifetime. Or maybe I dreamed it…
but I converted 5 people to self-identify as Libertarian, just by preaching economics and pointing out that the State was not their friend, and that business was.
It was a good thing.
The Wisconsin mafia (a.k.a. politicians) cry about black market cigarettes selling online. The Wisconsin mafia gets angry because an unintended consequence has been that foreigners they call terrorists have been able to sell large amounts of cigarettes and thereby reap enormous revenues. Senator Herb Kohl (WI) thinks a law to crack down on illegal tobacco sales should stop this funding of terrorism. It would actually be the reduction of tax to zero on cigarettes that would reduce the revenues to terrorists. The Wisconsin mafia is so stupid, it helps fund other mafias around the world.
<a href="http://kohl.senate.gov/newsroom/pressrelease.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1464=2757"
Sheesh, with the upcoming “sin taxes” (hah, goobernmint preaching about sin)on pop, I can see folks brewing their own Ginger Ale & Rootbeer and bootlegging it. Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton must be laughing his ass off in the great moonshine distillery in the sky!