Tobacco smuggling in Gibraltar ‘cost EU €700M’

The €700-million figure is contained in a confidential new report by the EU’s anti-fraud agency Olaf, cited by Spain’s El País newspaper on Thursday. The report also fingers specific companies involved in the illegal tobacco trade, according to the daily. Olaf’s 400-page report is the result of investigations into a complaint concerning increased smuggling of cigarettes across the frontier between Gibraltar and Spain in the period 2009-2013, an OLAF spokesperson told The Local recently.

Spanish media outlets said recently Gibraltar’s cigarette imports tripled from 2006 to 2011, with 110 million packets coming into the territory in 2012 alone.

http://www.thelocal.es/20140814/tobacco-smuggling-in-gibraltar-cost-eu-700m