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Greek police have discovered and destroyed 9 factories producing counterfeit cigarettes in the last two years. It is a perfectly completed plant, with facilities for workers.
The cigarettes are packed in packs of known brands like "Marlboro", "Muratti" up to "Business Royal" and are sold in the market for 1.5 Euros. It is a very lucrative business, given the fact that Greece is in the top countries in the world in terms of the number of smokers.
However, the number of cigarettes legally sold was 16.7 billion a year, almost half of 2009. This drastic decline was driven by the galloping rise in tobacco excise duties during the crisis years.
However, during the same period, the number of cigarettes sold illegally has been doubled, accounting for 25% of the Greek market. But not only that, some illegal cigarettes are exported to markets such as Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, depriving to the Greek state a significant amount of revenue.
Greece lost 700m euros last year from the illicit trade in cigarettes and tobacco. According to the international network KPMG, if this amount was collected at the state treasury, the pension reductions Greece implemented under three rescue programs and amounted to 740m euros could be avoided.
According to Bloomberg news agency, Greece is considered the "capital" of counterfeit cigarettes in Europe. Their producers in Greece invest about one million euros for a plant and within six months collect ten times the amount invested.
With such rankings, the Greek police are confident that, no matter how annihilated, new factories will grow like mushrooms after the rain, and counterfeit cigarettes will continue to be bought, despite the questionable quality and health risks.