21.   Three North Korean diplomats were expelled from Sweden this summer in connection with smuggling cigarettes, officials said Thursday.

22.   U.S. jury convicts brothers of smuggling cigarettes, sending profits to Hezbollah.

23.   In April, six officers from the Yugoslav army were among a group of people charged with smuggling cigarettes from Montenegro into Serbia.

24.   In Shebaa, nestling along the Syrian-Israeli border, villagers smuggle cigarettes to Syria on mules, carefully avoiding the Syrian security forces, guerrillas and storms.

25.   But the authorities often raid boats smuggling cigarettes from Gulf Arab states across the Gulf.

26.   Three diplomats at the North Korean embassy in Stockholm were expelled Thursday after reports that they tried to smuggle cigarettes, a spokesman for the Swedish foreign ministry said.

27.   Montenegro is notorious as a starting point for many of the high-powered boats used to smuggle cigarettes into Italy, from where they are distributed around Europe.

28.   Several officials and policemen, including the top local anti-contraband officer, were executed last month in the southern city of Zhuhai for helping to smuggle cigarettes.

29.   The Arellano gang got its start smuggling cigarettes and other consumer items before Mexico opened its economy to US goods.

30.   The EU alleges that US tobacco companies are involved in smuggling cigarettes into the EU, costing member states several hundred million euros a year in lost customs revenues.