don't know if they're still around but there used to be exporters in switzerland that sold marlboro cigs, orig phillip morris production, for something like $12 a carton shipped here to the US. This was back in the early 2000s
Odd thing, they packaged them in "cartons" that were 1 pack deep, ie about the size of a magazine, vs the 2 pack deep cartons we see here. Reason was to help them sneak thru the US mail like they weren't cigarettes. I probably bought 150 or so cartons from them, five to ten cartons at a time, of marlboro lights until i saw a story about phillip morris, being upset at what they were doing, PM hid some small explosive devices (i kid not) in a few cartons to scare away their customers. They weren't real dangerous, about the explosive level of a few firecrackers on an electronic PCB board, that went off when a customer would open the carton. That was a pretty dirty trick on PM's part, but what worried me, was what else they might sneak into the cartons, so i quit buying from the swiss outfit.
But they were legit PM smokes. I got curious, and as at the time i was an exporter/importer, i asked my import broker about marlboro smokes - it turned out they handled PM exports (i'm in RIchmond, VA, ie marlboro land) and the value on a sea container of marlboros was about $4500 , and my memory may be off, but iirc, there's about 4800 cartons in a shipping container.
There's probably similiar outfits out of the phillipines or who knows where doing the same - that swiss outfit shut down.
fwiw
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