''American tobacco companies have violated sanctions against Iraq for years by sending billions of cigarettes into the country, often with the aid of a terrorist organization, the European Union has alleged.

The allegations, made in recent filings in U.S. District Court in New York, were the latest salvos in a civil racketeering lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris by the European Community and 10 member nations. The suit accused tobacco companies of running a global and decades-long cigarette smuggling operation that robbed national treasuries of billions of dollars in tax revenue and became a money-laundering vehicle for criminal organizations.

[....]

"Based upon international cooperation in this matter, the European Community has learned that the scheme to ship cigarettes into Iraq involved the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK," the EU lawyers said, arguing that the shipments enriched not only the terrorists but also the regime of Saddam Hussein, whose son, Uday, reportedly controls cigarette smuggling in Iraq.''

- Public-I.org