Smuggling Stogies Online

Aug. 15 -- They're considered one of the most impressive of imports, the most refined of relaxations, the most vaunted of vices. They're Cuban cigars, and they have long been counted among the best cigars in the world. But if you live in the United States, you can't buy them.

Thanks to the trade embargo the U.S. government imposed on Cuba in 1962, Cuban cigars — and all products from our Communist neighbor to the south — are considered contraband, and bringing them into the United States is illegal.

Despite this restriction, however, an increasing number of cigar aficionados in the United States are finding it easier than ever to smuggle the illicit cigars into this country. And they're not using hollowed-out books or cigarette boats or hidden airstrips. They're using the Internet.

"Buying Cuban cigars over the Internet is extremely easy," one anonymous Cuban cigar smoker told CyberCrime. "It's as easy as buying books on Amazon.com."

That's because other countries don't have trade embargoes against Cuba. In past decades those smokers with the longing for a good, hearty Cuban cigar had to travel outside U.S. borders to purchase a banned stogie, but now all those smokers have to do is fire up their computers.

Online Stogie Stores

Type the phrase "Cuban cigars" into any search engine, and you'll find hundreds of Web sites, online retailers, and clubs that sell Cuban cigars over the Internet, many of which will ship to the United States.

The Cuban Cigars Club, for instance, advertises on the front page of its Web site, "We deliver to your door anywhere in the world, including [the] USA." Club Havana claims on its Web site, "We deliver to customers in Canada, the United States, and around the world." Club Havana's site even points out that its store in White Rock, British Columbia, is just "a short two-hour drive north of Seattle, Washington."

Stephen Mawdsley operates one of these foreign cigar retailers, and he claims that approximately 90 percent of the customers who shop at his Casa de Malahato in Victoria, British Columbia, are from the United States. He also estimates that he does most of his business online.