Illicit Trade Of Cuban Cigars

The Congress of Cuba recently approved a reform that would encourage state-owned enterprises to become more autonomous. On the flip side of the reform, these same enterprises would then be subjected to numerous thorough audits. The reform led to officials discovering corruption in the country's cigar industry. The cigars' commercial vice-president, Mr. Garcia, was incarcerated after he was accused of selling genuine Cuban cigars in the black market at a fraction of the original cost in exchange for generous bribes. These less expensive cigars pose a threat to online cigar retailers in several countries. Since Cuba established policies to only sell cigars to one distributor per region, the effect of the illicit trade of genuine cuban cigars hurt the distributors involved, such as the British company Imperial Tobacco which inherited a 50% stake in Habanos when it bought Altadis, a Franco-Spanish firm, in 2008. Companies like this rely on the new reform to ensure that the monopoly of Cuban cigars is restored.

-Gilberto Perez