But stories in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian ands other media reveal that British American Tobacco (BAT), the world's largest multinational tobacco company, has been supporting and profiting from the same cigarette smuggling schemes that tobacco claim are caused by policies to reduce tobacco use. According to the article, UK regulators have find BAT $1.03 million for oversupplying cigarettes in to the low-tax Belgium market to be smuggled back into UK, where Tobacco Taxes are much higher. This tactic violates UK law. The tobacco companies long history of relying on the illegal sales of cigarettes has been documented in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, South and Central American. Tobacco companies have also knowingly supplied tobacco products used in cigarette smuggling operations by illegal drug traffickers seeking to launder money. Tobacco use in the world's leading cause of preventable death.