August 2008
Smoke screen
To understand the scale of tobacco smuggling it is worth rewinding 16 years to the Balkan state of Montenegro. In 1992, under American and European pressure, the UN had just imposed sweeping economic sanctions against Montenegro and Serbia as a result of Belgrade’s continuing support for the Bosnian Serb army.
For a number of years criminals had been using Montenegro as a hub for tobacco smuggling. Refuelling planes were being used to get the tobacco into the mountainous state, fast boats were being used to get it out across the Adriatic into Italy.
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