The Act allows UK consumers to buy such goods in other EU states without incurring import duty. The government has pledged to halt the rise in tobacco smuggling within three years. The strategy also aims to increase the number of seizures along the smuggling supply chain and improve intelligence operations to smash organised gangs. This is an issue of criminality, with hardened gangs of criminals who do not care who they sell the cigarettes to and are using the profits to fund more criminal activity in this country. It denies honest taxpayers the money for high quality public services and it has disturbing links to other serious criminal activities.
Experts estimate that up to one in five cigarettes smoked in the UK is smuggled.
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