One of the legends that narrate the origins of pizza has it that it was the chef Raffaele Esposito who invented the recipe for that dish that would become one of the most famous in the world and above all that it was inspired by Queen Margherita of Savoy and hence the name of the most traditional pizza of all. Naples is a land of queens and it is not surprising if “Regina” is the name given to the brand of counterfeit cigarettes most produced in the beautiful Neapolitan city and which does not spare the local news.
In fact, at the beginning of December, the Guardia di Finanza of the Nola section, in the Neapolitan area, discovered in Acerra an industrial warehouse of about 1000 square meters where twelve men, all of whom were subsequently arrested, were preparing counterfeit cigarettes. The yellow flames have found 30 tons of manufactured tobacco of foreign origin, other raw materials (filters, rolling papers and packaging material), expensive machinery that has been confiscated. Once placed on the market, the cigarettes found would have yielded around 5 million euros. “Each packet of Regina – explains Francesco Marigliano, president of the Neapolitan tobacconists – costs around 2 euros, while legal cigarettes start at 50 euros per packet. Meanwhile, in the province of Naples there are about 4 stalls that sell them, mostly located in the hinterland north of Naples and in some historic districts of the capital. Smuggling in Italy creates an evasion of around 20 million euros a year”.
The Fiamme Gialle explained that it would be the first Neapolitan factory used for the production of smuggled cigarettes and it is not excluded that the Camorra is behind this turnover.
The news is part of a complex picture that describes the phenomena of counterfeiting and cigarette smuggling which the consultancy firm KPMG tracks in an annual report which includes data relating to illicit cigarette market in Europe and is commissioned by the British Institute for Defense and Security Services, called the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Services.
According to the analysis, iThe consumption of counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes in Europe for 2017 is estimated at 8,7% of total consumption, equal to 44.7 billion cigarettes. The volume of counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes is decreasing compared to previous years and presents the lowest value since 2008. Above all, the 7,4% reduction was found to be more incisive than the 2,5% reduction in legal domestic consumption of the product . According to these numbers, the losses for European governments amounted to 10 billion euros. The Italian detail instead speaks of losses equal to 641 million, a percentage share of total consumption of smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes equal to 4,8%, down by one percentage point compared to 2016. The higher flow of counterfeit items and smuggling comes from the so-called White Brands which held a 61% market share in 2017.
Despite the general decline, the volume of counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes it grew in the countries with the highest price difference with respect to the countries of origin, while it collapsed in those with a good level of law enforcement or a favorable economic situation.
The online market is also open for cigarette smuggling, it was difficult to think of keeping this business away from the internet as well. In particular, there are two different types of illicit tobacco sellers: Individuals who have no connection to organized crime and organized criminals who even have international contacts and a strong distribution network. Research again shows that a small number of very specialized sellers are responsible for a high proportion of illicit sales even internationally. Given the volume of small packages unloaded daily at customs facilities, customs officials are unable to inspect every single shipment, and therefore rely on risk-based profiling strategies. Exploiting this vulnerability, organized crime has decided to adopt a low-volume, high-frequency approach to smuggling all sorts of illicit goods. In addition to reducing the risk of interception, high-frequency, low-volume methods minimize financial losses in the event of seizure, since a single shipment accounts for only a small fraction of the illicit goods transported by a given group.
In Italy, four main drivers of the development of illicit cigarette trafficking have been identified: easy access to the product, see how Naples – which alone has an illegal share of 35% – for example the distribution is carried out on the streets in the light of the sun. A second element that once again characterizes a basin such as that of the Neapolitan city is the social accessibility of the sale of illicit products, an activity that is hidden by the citizens themselves. A further element is undoubtedly that of the difference in price between the cost of cigarettes in Italy and in neighboring countries such as Croatia where a pack costs 3,05 euros or 3,51 in Slovenia while in the peninsula the average price is 4.76 which is in any case, a lower price than that which would be found in other northern European markets. The fourth element that allows the proliferation of the sale of counterfeit or contraband cigarettes is the rampant corruption and mafia infiltration within the institutions.
