When smoke leaves a trail

There is something easily overlooked behind a pack of cheap cigarettes. The object is small, passing from the hands of a trader to a buyer, then vanishing with the smoke. When it circulates without an excise stamp or with an improper one, the problem is far larger.

The city of Surabaya, East Java, has just demonstrated its scale. On 26 August 2026, the Surabaya city government together with Customs and Excise destroyed 43,248 million illegal cigarettes worth approximately Rp64.2 billion.

If circulated, the goods could have cost the state around Rp36.03 billion in lost revenue from excise duty, value-added tax on tobacco products and cigarette tax.

The figure matters not merely because of the volume of goods seized, but because it reveals the existence of a market capable of absorbing products in very large quantities.

Around 70 per cent of the destroyed cigarettes were said to originate from enforcement operations in Surabaya. From January to August 2026, the Surabaya Civil Service Police Unit (Satpol PP) swept around 30 locations, while the city government prepared supervision based on 31 sub-districts.

The phenomenon is not confined to Surabaya. Customs and Excise recorded enforcement actions against 1.2 billion illegal cigarettes up to 31 July 2026, while in the first half of 2025 the number of seizures stood at around 600 million.

East Java is also part of the cross-regional distribution pattern. In August 2026, Customs and Excise foiled the shipment of 8.96 million illegal cigarettes from East Java to Jakarta using a cargo train before the goods were planned to be sent to Sumatra by sea.

This fact shows that circulation does not stop at warehouses or shops, but exploits inter-regional logistics networks.

For this reason, illegal cigarettes should not be viewed merely as goods without excise stamps that happen to be found by officers. They are a link in an economic chain with suppliers, transporters, sellers and buyers. As long as that chain continues to find room, the goods that have been destroyed can be replaced by the next shipment.