Up to one-third of all cigarettes sold in Romania are smuggled into the country and sold without tax payments.

These smuggled cigarettes costs the government over one billion Euros in lost revenue.

Source:  Tevetelia Tsolova, “Cigarette tax hike backfires in Balkans,” Reuters, August 27, 2010.

Mexican drug cartels are estimated to bring in between $25 Billion to $40 Billion a year from the global drug trafficking operations.

Source:  “Mexico’s Calderon says will target drug cash,” Reuters, August 26, 2010.

Losses from credit card fraud in Canada was $477 Million (501 Million Canadian) in 2009, down from $488 Million (512 Million Canadian) in 2008.

Losses from debit card fraud increased to $135 Million (142 Million Canadian) in 2009, up from $100 (105 Million Canadian) in 2008.

Source:  Conal Pierse, “Mobsters want to be your online friends,” Vancouver Sun, August 21, 2010.

In the first half of 2010, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore handled 13,300 cases of cigarette smuggling, an increase of 62 percent from the 8,200 cases handled in the first half of 2009.

Despite the larger case load, the number of cigarette packs seized to 699,000 compared to 734,000 cigarette packs seized in the first half of 2009.

Source:  Victoria Barker, “Smuggling rises to 7-year high,” Asia One, August 6, 2010.

Over 5.5 billion cigarettes, or 20 percent of all cigarettes sold in South Africa, are either smuggled or counterfeit cigarettes.

The South African Government loses an estimated $300 Million (2.2 Billion South African Rand) in tax revenue, which is roughly the same amount as the legitimate tax revenue.

Source:  Chris Blane, “SA’s illicit cigarette trade,” Moneyweb, August 1, 2010.

According to a report by NPR, the cost to obtain a position as a city assemblymen in a town in rural China costs $44,000.

Source:  Anthony Kuhn, “China’s Hidden Economy Of Graft Undermines State,” NPR, July 30, 2010.

According to figures compiled by the Associated Press, between December 2006 and September 2009, the Mexican Government arrested 226,667 drug suspects. Out of that total, less than a total have been officially charged with a crime.

The examples provided by the AP show that 24,000 people were freed from Baja California out of the 33,000 that were arrested. In Sinaloa, 9,700 were arrested and 5,606 were released. And in the birthplace of the Gulf Cartel, 3,600 were arrested with 2,083 later released.

Source: Associated Press, “AP Impact: Mexico justice means catch and release,” Washington Post, July 27, 2010.

During the 2010 World Cup, police in Asia arrested over 5,000 people for illegal gambling activities and seized more than $10 Million.

Police in Malaysia, China, Thailand and Singapore raided 800 illegal gambling dens where $155 Million in illegal bets were placed during the World Cup.

Source:  “Thousands held in Asian gambling bust,” CNN, July 16, 2010.

The smuggling of contraband and counterfeit cigarettes creates losses in revenue to the Europe Union of up to $12 Billion (10 Billion Euros).

Contraband cigarettes are legitimate cigarettes that have been smuggled into the country without the payment of taxes. Counterfeit cigarettes are fake cigarettes where no money is paid in taxes or the a legitimate business.

Source:  Associated Press, “EU, BAT cooperate against illegal cigarette trade,” Google News, July 15, 2010.

The market in smuggled goods in Iran is estimated to be valued at $12 Billion a year.

Source:  Babak Dehghanpisheh, “Smugglers for the State,” Newsweek, July 10, 2010.