HomeNewsBriefBelize Free Trade Zone Emerges as Cigarette Smuggling Hub
BRIEF

Belize Free Trade Zone Emerges as Cigarette Smuggling Hub

BELIZE / 10 JUN 2013 BY MARGUERITE CAWLEY EN

A free trade zone in Belize's Corozal district has become a hub for the regional contraband cigarette trade, highlighting both Belize's role in regional smuggling and how the lax customs regulations in such zones create criminal opportunities.

Black market cigarettes from countries such as India, China, Switzerland, Paraguay, and Panama are sold in Belize's northeast border region, tax free and for a fraction of their normal legal price, according to elPeriodico.

An official from tobacco company Phillip Morris International (PMI), who accompanied ElPeriodico's reporters to Corozal, negotiated the purchase of 10.8 million cigarettes -- a quantity that would normally cost a Guatemalan retailer $500,000 -- for $314,000.

According to PMI, the majority of cigarettes enter Belize via a Paraguay-Uruguay-Panama route, and then usually leave Belize by land over the border with Guatemala or Mexico, in vans packed with merchandise.

InSight Crime Analysis

The percentage of contraband cigarettes sold in other Central American nations illustrate the breadth of the trade. According to ElPeriodico's numbers, 18 percent of cigarettes sold in Guatemala are contraband, compared to 11.7 percent in El Salvador, 10 percent in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and 70 percent in Panama.

There are plenty of indications that Belize plays a particularly significant role in the regional contraband cigarette trade. In early June, officials in Guatemala's Peten department discovered an abandoned truck with three million contraband cigarettes, believed to have originated from Belize. Inspections of stores in Aguascalientes, Mexico by Mexican authorities led to the seizure of 145 thousand contraband cigarettes allegedly sourced from Belize.

Belize's prominent role in the contraband trade is likely enhanced by its porous borders, lack of security measures and rugged geography, all factors which have contributed to a rise in organized crime activity in the country in recent years.

Corozal is not the only free trade zone to attract the attention of criminals. In Colon, Panama, drug traffickers use the zone to launder profits, purchasing goods which are then shipped to Colombia and sold at a discount price, converting drug dollars into Colombian pesos.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BELIZE / 2 JUN 2022

Since El Salvador's government began a campaign of mass arrests two months ago in a gang crackdown, fewer than 60…

CONTRABAND / 18 MAY 2022

Cattle from Mexico and the Central American nations of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua help feed the domestic beef markets of…

CIACS / 21 JUN 2023

Guatemala's political landscape is dominated by corrupt elites that have ensured impunity for themselves and their allies.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…