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Colloquium 2022
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The cigarette smuggling business in Greece
Antonopoulos, Georgios A.

Cigarette smuggling has recently received increased attention despite the fact that it has a long history in specific contexts. It has been linked with and discussed in relation to other criminal activities, minority ethnic groups, terrorism, health, and finance. The smuggling of tobacco and cigarettes has deep historical roots in the Greek context. Despite this, mild concerns about cigarette smuggling were expressed only in the beginning of the 1990s, when cigarettes were smuggled into Greece from Albania primarily by un-documented migrants, and serious ones in 1995, when the first truckloads of contraband cigarettes were intercepted on the Greek-Bulgarian border. In contrast to official accounts, such as the Ministry of Public Order`s annual reports on organised crime, that Greece is a transit country, evidence suggests that Greece is a source, transit and destination country for smug-gled cigarettes. It is now suggested that contraband cigarettes represent 8% of the total cigarette consumption in the country, and that the cigarette smuggling business deprives the Greek state of millions in taxes.

There are a number of reasons why Greece is an interesting context for the study of cigarette smuggling, apart of course from the fact that cigarette smuggling as a subject of academic inquiry has not received adequate atten-tion in Greece. These include - among others- the percentage of smokers in the overall population, the presence of corruption and a large informal econ-omy in Greece as well as the fact that the street-selling of contraband ciga-rettes is largely tolerated by law enforcement and the Greek public. The pur-pose of this paper is to provide an account of the cigarette black market in Greece, based on a variety of official and `unofficial` sources.

The Cross-Border Crime Colloquium is an annual event since 1999. It brings together experts on international organised (economic) crime to discuss the latest developments in empirical research, legislation and law enforcement, with a special geographical focus on Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. The Colloquia aim at building bridges in three respects: between East and West Europe, between scholars and practitioners, and between old and young.

2019	Olsztyn, Poland
2021	Kongsvinger, Norway (Virtual)
2019	Utrecht, the Netherlands
2018	Kharkiv, Ukraine
2017	Bratislava, Slovakia
2016	Newcastle, United Kingdom
2015	Prague, Czech Republic
2014	Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzeg.
2013	Cambridge, United Kingdom
2012	Manchester, United Kingdom
2011	Tilburg, The Netherlands
2009	Ghent, Belgium
2008	Beograd, Serbia
2007	Prague, Czech Republic
2006	Tallinn, Estonia
2005	Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzeg.
2004	Berlin, Germany
2003	Ainring, Germany
2002	Ljubljana, Slovenia
2001	Bratislava, Slovakia
2000	Budapest, Hungary
1999	Prague, Czech Republic

The 22nd Cross-border Crime Colloquium will be hosted by the The University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland on 10 and 11 October 2022. We will soon share the agenda and details on how to attend.
For information, please contact
Prof. Dr. Joanna Banach-Gutierrez: jbbanachgutierrez@gmail.com
Prof. Dr. Petrus C. van Duyne: P.vanduyne@ziggo.nl

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