Smuggled Cigarettes In Mexico

We’ve reported extensively on the fierce jostling for supremacy in Belize’s export cigarette market. It is a huge multi-million dollar enterprise, selling – or smuggling – cigarettes from Asia, mostly China, out of the Free Zone sin the North and West and getting them into Mexico. Well tonight Mexico is reporting a major bust with contraband cigarettes from Belize. A Mexican newspaper reports that on 14 March, authorities seized more than 14 million contraband cigarettes, the largest seizure on over a year. They intercepted the cigarettes in a trailer containing 402 thousand cartons of cigarettes. The brands are Bronco, D & J, Royal, Gold Seal Supreme manufactured in Vietnam, India, Paraguay, China and Canada. The vehicle operator, 42 year old Juan Ramirez Sanchez, submitted false invoices for air conditioners – but only cigarettes were inside. News reports say they were smuggled into Mexico through the border with Belize.