WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Cigarette smuggling costs states an estimated $5.5 billion annually. Much of that traffic takes place on the East Coast along Interstate 95, as cigarettes from lower-tax states are being smuggled to states with higher taxes in the Northeast. A new website, sponsored by RAI Services Co., a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., calls the I-95 corridor “The New Tobacco Road.”

The website draws attention to the problem to encourage states to pass stiffer penalties for smuggling and devote more resources to enforcement.

The website, www.thenewtobaccoroad.com, shows how I-95 has become a key transit route for cigarette smuggling from southern states to the Northeast. The illegal profits that are being derived from these operations benefit an organized-crime infrastructure already experienced in transporting illegal drugs and other contraband, and fostering violent crime up and down the I-95 corridor.

http://www.cspnet.com/category-news/tobacco/articles/reynolds-american-sponsored-website-looks-new-tobacco-road