Smuggling—Europe’s Blight of the ’90’s

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN GERMANY

A speedboat races from the North African coast, toward Gibraltar; a motorized caravan sets out from Poland, driving westward; a Bulgarian truck heads for northern Europe; an aircraft flies from Moscow to Munich. What do these means of transport have in common? Each has been used for smuggling.

SMUGGLING is the secret transport of goods into or out of a country or region, either to avoid the authorities because the goods are prohibited or to avoid paying taxes on them. Smuggling—at times known as bootlegging or running contraband—has been practiced in Europe since at least the 14th century. This illicit activity has been so widespread that the folklore of many lands now includes romantic tales of smugglers, some of whom became popular heroes.

Smuggling is illegal and mostly harmful—though at times it has promoted good. For example, in the 16th century, copies of William Tyndale’s translation of parts of the Bible were smuggled into England, where they had been banned. Moreover, when German forces occupied France in 1940, smugglers—with their firsthand experience in using the lanes and byways of Normandy—“were the best logisticians in the [French] resistance,” reports GEO.

Now, 50 years later, smuggling is booming—but as a blight rather than a blessing. Europe has become what the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung calls “a paradise for smugglers.” What has led to this development?

For one thing, the European Union has expanded, with the number of member states increasing from 6 to 15 within 40 years.a The relaxation of visa restrictions has made international travel much easier. One European resident noted: “Thirty years ago officials checked your papers at every frontier. These days, you can drive across the same borders without even stopping.”

Furthermore, Eastern Europe has opened up its borders. Some frontiers, such as the one that formerly existed between the two parts of Germany, no longer exist. All of this means that trade across borders is much easier. But so is smuggling. And organized crime has been quick to capitalize on the new situation. Gangs of criminals specialize in a variety of contraband items.

Art Treasures Smuggled to Order

For many years before Eastern Europe opened its borders, art treasures in Russia were out of the reach of Western collectors. Now, however, such treasures are “being pillaged by an unlikely alliance of west European art galleries and murderous gangs of Russian smugglers,” reports The European. Indeed, “the smuggling of stolen art treasures [in Europe] is believed by police to have become the third most profitable criminal activity after drug smuggling and the illegal arms trade.”

Smuggling art is big business in Russia and elsewhere. In Italy, within a two-year period, works of art worth over $500 million were stolen. Sixty percent of Europe’s stolen art ends up in London, where buyers are found. In fact, many items are even “stolen to order for an unscrupulous private collector.” Small wonder that the recovery rate is a paltry 15 percent.

Toxics—Smuggling With a Difference

With art, criminals are paid to smuggle items into a country, whereas with other goods, they are paid to take things out. One example is toxic waste. Why go to the trouble of smuggling poisonous waste out of a country? Because the cost of legally disposing of toxic matter has risen sharply in many lands. This together with the threat of stricter environmental controls makes it an attractive proposition to pay smugglers to dispose of toxic industrial waste abroad.

Where do these materials end up? Investigations by the German Federal Crime Bureau indicate that gangs smuggle toxic waste materials—such as old car batteries, solvents, paints, pesticides, and toxic metals—from the West and dump them in such lands as Poland, Romania, and the former Soviet Union. These items will threaten the health of the population of those countries for years to come.

Contraband Cigarettes

Other groups of criminals specialize in running contraband cigarettes. The cigarettes have been transported, for instance, from North Africa to the Iberian Peninsula in speedboats or from Poland to Germany in automobiles. The sums of money involved are huge. Illegal trade in untaxed cigarettes costs the German State about one thousand million marks ($674 million, U.S.) a year in lost tax receipts.

According to Die Welt, on the streets of Berlin, some 10,000 salesmen—sometimes called pushers—offer contraband, cut-rate cigarettes.

Trade in Human Beings

Another specialty of organized crime—one that is particularly villainous—is traffic in human beings. The price for a person to be smuggled into Western Europe—perhaps in a truck like the one mentioned at the start of the article—is exorbitant. Indeed, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, in Vienna, estimates that this trade in humans earns more than $1.1 billion annually.

Since most illegal immigrants come from impoverished lands, few can pay the smugglers in advance. Hence, after arrival in Europe, they are forced to repay the debt by working for the smugglers and their criminal gangs. The pitiful immigrants thus find themselves shackled in endless modern-day slavery, constantly subjected to exploitation, coercion, robbery, and rape. Some end up working for what Die Welt describes as the cigarette mafia; others end up in prostitution.

The cost to the new host country is not measured in terms of lost taxes only. Rival gangs lock horns in warfare that the Süddeutsche Zeitung describes as being of “unimaginable brutality.” The figures speak for themselves: In what used to be East Germany, gangs committed 74 murders in four years.

Most Frightening of All

“Of all the unforeseen consequences of the Soviet Union’s collapse,” wrote a newsmagazine, “perhaps none is more frightening than the black-market trade in nuclear material.” Radioactive matter has supposedly been smuggled out of Russia into Germany, thus making this sinister leakage “the world’s problem, and Germany’s problem in particular.”

Take, for instance, the flight from Moscow mentioned at the beginning of the article. Upon arrival in Munich, one passenger was found to be carrying plutonium, a radioactive substance, in his briefcase. Since plutonium is extremely poisonous and can cause cancer, contamination could have been devastating for Munich and its residents.

Early in 1996, a Russian physicist was arrested and charged with smuggling abroad more than a kilogram of radioactive material that, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, was said to be “suitable for the construction of a nuclear bomb.” Western nations are rightly concerned. At a summit meeting in Moscow, politicians from leading industrial nations agreed on a plan to try to “prevent nuclear weapons material being smuggled out of the former Soviet Union to terrorists or ‘rogue states,’” wrote The Times of London.

With such risks in mind, many people are asking themselves: Can international agreements prevent smuggling? Are governments, though they be honest and well-intentioned, able to curb organized crime? Will smuggling progress from the blight of the ’90’s to the scourge of the new millennium? Or is there reason to hope that smugglers will soon go out of business?

Smuggling—Trade With a Short Future

There are sound reasons to believe that smuggling will soon be a thing of the past. This is because the conditions that make smuggling possible and, for some people, attractive will be eradicated. What sort of conditions?

First, today’s oppressive and unrighteous economic systems have resulted in an unfair distribution of wealth. Whereas people in certain lands enjoy prosperity, people just across the frontier may live in poverty or may suffer shortages. These are the conditions that make smuggling lucrative. But our Creator has promised in the Holy Scriptures that he will soon introduce a system of things in which “righteousness is to dwell.” Oppressive and unrighteous economic systems will disappear.—2 Peter 3:13.

Moreover, national frontiers will be eliminated, for under the government of the heavenly King, Jesus Christ, mankind will become one society. With such an international brotherhood inhabiting the whole earth, there will no longer be illegal immigrants. And since no one will go to war, the risk of radioactive contamination from nuclear war will not be present. In the new system of things, mankind will learn to respect the environment.—Psalm 46:8, 9.

The chief motivating factors in modern-day smuggling are greed, dishonesty, and lack of love for others. The fact that many people display such characteristics today is an indication that we are living in what the Bible describes as “the last days.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5) The righteous new system of Jehovah’s making is near at hand. We all have reason to look to the future with confidence, not in human governments or economic systems, but in Jehovah’s new system.

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Other Items of Contraband

Rare animals: A man was caught transporting rare tortoises from Serbia to Germany. He confessed to smuggling 3,000 such animals within a five-year period, earning half a million marks ($300,000, U.S.). Trade in rare animals is mainly in the hands of professional criminals and is increasing. “The black market is booming,” remarked one customs official. “Some collectors pay huge amounts of money.”

Fake brand-name products: Within half a year, customs officials at the Frankfurt airport, in Germany, confiscated over 50,000 articles carrying well-known brand names. The articles—such as watches, computer software, sports items, and sunglasses—were all imitations.

Automobiles: A leading car-rental company in Europe reported a 130-percent increase in vehicle theft during a five-year period. One newspaper describes the methods of “modern highway robbers.” They hire cars, report them as having been stolen, and then smuggle the vehicles out of the country.

Precious metals: Cobalt, nickel, copper, ruthenium, and germanium are all available—at favorable prices—in Estonia, which has become one of the smuggling capitals of the world.

Petrol and diesel fuel: Smugglers using boats to run contraband petrol and diesel fuel across the Danube River between Romania and Serbia were able to earn up to $2,500 for a night’s work. In this region the average monthly wage is about $80!