Lilian Hernandez Osorio
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, October 28, 2025, p. 12
Around 20 percent of the cigarettes smoked in the country are produced or marketed by organized crime, according to a preview of the study “The marketing of illegal and semi-legal cigarettes in Mexico”, prepared at the Seminar on Violence and Peace of the College of Mexico (Colmex).
According to Manuel Pérez, who is carrying out a second phase of this investigation, the consumption of illegal cigarettes went from 8.5 percent in 2017 to 20.4 in 2023, because they have grown in the illegal market, because it does not have health controls and is a lucrative business.
“It is a growing and multimillion-dollar phenomenon, but practically unknown and that goes unnoticed,” said Pérez during the presentation of this advance of the study at Colmex, after clarifying that it is not only in Mexico, but that it is a global phenomenon, since one in every 5 cigarettes consumed in Latin America is illegal.
He commented that given the increase in the special tax on production and services on cigarettes approved two weeks ago, the objective is to discourage consumption and increase revenue; However, it foresees an undesirable effect: the expansion of the illegal cigarette trade. He also pointed out that illegal tobacco reproduces the same damage as legal tobacco and adds new health risks,
The breaking point of the origin of illegal cigarettes, he noted, was in 2011 when there was a 30 percent increase in the tobacco tax (which means 1.3 percent of total federal revenue).
The search for cheaper options encourages smuggling and illegal manufacturing, which is why criminal groups control the sale of “loose cigarettes” in irregular establishments such as street markets and breweries.
