Inside the lucrative smuggling operation that sees millions of Chinese cigarettes pass through Texas Courtesy / Policia Nacional June 29, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Not drugs, weapons or gems. It was cigarettes. Cartons upon cartons of black market cigarettes for export. An 80-year-old Mission man and two young associates were convicted and sentenced for trying to move the stash. The elder player in the scheme admitted he intended to smuggle nearly 423 million cigarettes through Texas into Mexico. The case provides a glimpse into the operations of Chinese firms that are well on their way to taking over the global tobacco market. Although cigarettes seem an unlikely product to smuggle — they’re legal in most places — they represent a lucrative business that can include big profits and tax savings. And they give those backing the smugglers a way into the economies of other countries and sometimes the leverage to persuade governments to put in place more favorable policies, reporting by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project shows.