The Tunisian shopkeeper gazes anxiously at his depleted cigarette shelves before turning his eyes towards the door. Rida, 35, is waiting for a visitor who has not come for days; his contraband cigarettes provider.

He tries to call the man to know why he has not come. He was supposed to receive his goods days ago but he is worried because the government is leading a campaign against cigarette smugglers.

The Tunisian shopkeeper gazes anxiously at his depleted cigarette shelves before turning his eyes towards the door. Rida, 35, is waiting for a visitor who has not come for days; his contraband cigarettes provider.

He tries to call the man to know why he has not come. He was supposed to receive his goods days ago but he is worried because the government is leading a campaign against cigarette smugglers.

Rida sells cigarettes smuggled from Libya and Algeria, which are much cheaper than the regular cigarettes sold in Tunisia. He has been selling contraband goods for nine years, yet he fears his customers may turn to other shops if his provider does not appear soon.

Rida’s provider is not a smuggler but a middle-man wedged beween smugglers and mainstream market buyers like Rida. The risks he takes allow him to make huge profits. He buys the goods from smugglers for extremely low prices and sells them to retailers with a huge margin of profit. It is a highly lucrative industry which could get him sent to prison at any time.

Rida’s phone rings as his shelves are empty. It is the provider, but the news is not good: Rida will have to wait longer until the man is able to move the contraband cigarettes from one of his stores in the coastal border town of Ben Gardane, southeast Tunisia.

The police have recently upped their raids on people selling black market goods and many smugglers have gone underground fearing repercussions, such as the confiscation of their goods – worth millions of dollars.

Supply chains damaged

Riza’s contact for illegal cigarettes is also worried.  Since the government declared its campaign against smuggling, hundreds of police and customs personnel are checking trucks and cars at roadblocks in search of smuggled and tax-evading goods. Customs and the police often identify cars carrying smuggled goods by their numberplates.

Last week in Nahj Al-Milaha – in the capital Tunis – police raided  a smuggler’s warehouse and confiscated contraband cigarettes worth half a million dollars.

Borderline politics

Black market dealers however complain of double standards adopted by the government. They say that the largest storage units holding contraband cigarettes are in Ben Gardane, on the Libyan border, yet the government is afraid of tackling smugglers there.

Economic analyst Monem Bin Rajeh says that the government is hesitant to take on the biggest smugglers for fear of inflaming the volatile security situation in border cities. Bin Rajeh says any campaign by the government to fight smugglers and store owners in border areas would result in social unrest. Many of these areas already suffer from high unemployment and a lack of development.

Parallel economy

Bin Rajeh says smugglers have replaced the state as the key organ for development in the region. “They have provided better living conditions for thousands of local people who now work in selling and distributing goods smuggled from Libya,” Bin Rajeh told Correspondents.

According to Bin Rajeh, none of the governments who have run the country since the revolution have managed to put in action a plan to develop the south. Southern cities like Ben Gardane have repeatedly witnessed popular protests that shook the country, says Bin Rajeh.