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Smuggling Stogies Online, TechTV.com
A growing number of foreign websites
sell Cuban cigars online to US residents. Find
out if there's anything law enforcement can do
about it Tuesday 7/9 at 9 p.m. Eastern on
'CyberCrime.'
By Jack Karp
They're considered the most
impressive of imports, the most refined of
relaxations, the most vaunted of vices. They're
Cuban cigars, but if you live in the United
States, you can't buy them.
Thanks to the trade embargo the
US government imposed on Cuba in 1962, Cuban
cigars are considered contraband.
However, as we show you on
'CyberCrime' this week, an increasing number of US
cigar aficionados are finding it easier than ever
to smuggle the illicit cigars into this country
using the Internet.
"Buying Cuban cigars over the
Internet is extremely easy," one anonymous Cuban
cigar smoker told "CyberCrime." "It's as easy as
buying books on Amazon.com."
That's because other countries
don't have trade embargoes against Cuba. In past
decades, smokers longing for a good, hearty Cuban
cigar had to travel outside US borders to purchase
a banned stogie. Now all they have to do is fire
up their computers.
Type the phrase "Cuban cigars"
into any search engine, and you'll find hundreds
of websites, online retailers, and clubs that sell
Cuban cigars over the Internet. Many will ship
cigars to the United States.
The Cuban Cigars Club, for
instance, advertises on the front page of its
website, "We deliver to your door anywhere in the
world, including [the] USA." Club Havana claims on
its website, "We deliver to customers in Canada,
the United States, and around the world." Club
Havana's site even points out that its store in
White Rock, British Columbia, is just "a short
two-hour drive north of Seattle."
Stephen Mawdsley operates one of
these foreign cigar retailers, and he claims that
approximately 90 percent of the customers who shop
at his Casa de Malahato in Victoria, Canada, are
from the United States. He also estimates that he
does most of his business online.
"You give them your credit card,
you tell them which ones you want, and you close
the deal," our anonymous cigar smoker said of such
websites. "Within a week or two weeks, your cigars
arrive in a package, either [by] US mail or by
courier."
US law enforcement agents can do
nothing to stop these websites, since they operate
in countries where US laws do not apply.
"Unless there's some treaty with
that country that says we'll cooperate on this
issue, putting an obligation on that country to go
out and squash that operation, then there's
absolutely nothing" that can be done, US Customs
Service supervisory inspector Mike Freatis said.
"If it's legal in that country, then it's legal."
But that doesn't make it legal in
this country, Freatis points out. The penalties
for smuggling Cuban cigars into the United States
include, in addition to confiscation of the
cigars, civil fines of up to $55,000 per violation
and, in certain cases, criminal prosecution that
could lead to higher fines or imprisonment.
Freatis and customs officials at
the US Customs Service mail-inspection facility in
Oakland, California, and at eight other inspection
facilities around the country, inspect packages
arriving in the United States for contraband
goods, including Cuban cigars. In 1999, customs
agents confiscated nearly 300,000 of the illegal
stogies. In 2000, the Customs Service mounted a
major raid, sweeping through upscale Manhattan
restaurants and clubs like Patroon and 21 Club,
and arresting managers and patrons alike.
But Freatis said he guesses a
large number of Cuban cigars are still slipping
into the United States despite customs officials'
enforcement efforts. With more than 3 million
packages being sorted each month at the Oakland
customs facility alone, it is impossible for
agents to stop all the cigar smugglers.
So, as long as the embargo is
maintained, as long as there are people in the
United States who choose to smoke Cuban cigars,
and as long as there are online retailers in other
countries willing to ship those cigars to the
United States, Cuban cigars will continue to make
their way past Freatis and his colleagues and into
this country.
"I don't think the Cuban
government is benefiting by my buying a few boxes
of cigars online a year," our anonymous smoker said. "And
I don't think anybody is being hurt by my breaking
the law, so I just choose to break it."
This article was first published
on August 14, 2001, and is based on original
reporting by "CyberCrime" segment producer Jon
Taylor.
Posted July 9, 2002
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