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Dangerous habit: The criminal networks flooding the UK with fake cigarettes

The criminal networks behind the UK's huge counterfeit cigarette market.

File on 4 Investigates reveals the global criminal networks flooding the UK with fake cigarettes. We trace the supply chain smuggling the counterfeits across borders and lay bare the human cost as vulnerable people are moved across continents and made to work and live in clandestine factories here in the UK.

We reveal how a secret factory capable of making up to a quarter of a billion cigarettes a year was recently uncovered in the UK and join Belgian customs as they raid a factory making cigarettes bound for the British market. A former senior official in Europol tells us criminal gangs are now making as much money from fake cigarettes as drugs.

Presenter: Jane Deith
Producer: Paul Grant
Production Co-ordinators: Tim Fernley & Tom Dunster
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Tara McDermott

Release date:

37 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Tuesday20:00
  • Wednesday11:00

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