According to the Guardian, fashion label Burberry is believed to be the most copied fashion label by counterfeit manufacturers, ahead of labels such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

Source: “Counterfeit fashion: The most copied designer labels,” Guardian, March 17, 2009.

An estimated 30 billion cigarettes are smuggled out of Ukraine each year.

Source:  Jonathan Sibun, “Revealed: £2bn cost to UK from cigarette smuggling,” Telegraph, August 29, 2009.

Between 12 to 20 billion cigarettes are believed to be smuggled illegally into the United Kingdom each year, leading to a loss to 2 billion Pounds in tax revenue.

Source:  Jonathan Sibun, “Revealed: £2bn cost to UK from cigarette smuggling,” Telegraph, August 29, 2009.

In the first eight month of 2009, there was an increase of 300 percent in the amount of drugs entering Indonesia from Malaysia. Heroin and crystal methamphetamine were the most frequent type of drug smuggled into Indonesia.

Source:  Apriadi Gunanawan, ” Illegal drug smuggling from Malaysia on the rise,” Jakarata Post, August 30, 2009.

The World Health Organization estimates that up to 50 percent of all drugs in the world could be counterfeit.

Source: ZD Net Asia, “On the Trail of Counterfeit Drugs,” BusinessWeek, August 28, 2009.

The financial value of Marijuana in the United States is estimated to be $35.8 Billion.

Source:  Adam Tschorn, “Marijuana’s new high life,” Los Angeles Times, August 30, 2009.

The FBI Uniform Crime report states that there was 87,721 arrests for Marijuana violations in the United States in 2007.

Source:  Adam Tschorn, “Marijuana’s new high life,” Los Angeles Times, August 30, 2009.

According to Mexico’s Public Safety Secretary, $431 Million is spent on illegal drugs in Mexico by its citizens.

Source:  EFE, “Drug cartels make $64 bn a year from U.S., Mexican says,” Marketwatch, August 27, 2009.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, sexual exploitation consisted of 79 percent of human trafficking cases, followed by forced labor, with 18 percent of reports.

However, the UNODC stated that the huge disparity in numbers could be the result of statistical bias, as sexual exploitation of women is much more visible than forced labour and could be reported more frequently.

Source:  UNODC, “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons: Executive Summary,” February 2009.

One fifth of the world’s catch in fishes comes from illegal, unregulated or unreported vessels.  For valuable fishes such as the blue fin tuna, half of the fishes sold comes from illegal fishing activities.

Source: “Illegal fishing evades U.N. crackdown: study,” Reuters,August 25, 2009.