Cuban cigars are a hot commodity on the black market — both inside Cuba and in the United States. Cuban cigars are a hot commodity on the black market — both inside Cuba and in the United States.
In Cuba, there is a growing portion of society that is entering into the illegal trade of Cuban cigars. People needing dollars to survive circulate through the tourist sections of Habana and other towns and cities offering tourists cigars at a street discounted price.
Everyone in Cuba seems to know someone that works at the fábricas. An employee at a cigar factory is allowed to leave work each day with two cigars — or more if the security at the factory is bribed. Boxes, stickers, stamps and labels are just as easily obtainable [see photo at left]. After little time a jinetero , one who works in the illegal dollar industry, can assemble a box of the finest export grade cigars. While some jineteros deal in counterfeit cigars, most deal in the real thing, and the tourist is the one that benefits. For example, the authors of this website were able to purchase a special edition box of Cohiba Pirámides, which normally would sell for $400 in the official cigar shops in Havana, for $50 from a bellhop at one of the tourist hotels in Old Havana. The box came with all of the official labels and seals (see photo, below right). In addition to availability in the tourist hotels, one just needs to stroll through Old Havana and other areas to be approached by a jinetero with the words, in English, "Friend, friend, you want cigar?" May the buyer beware, especially when leaving Cuba, for customs officers will only permit two boxes of cigars to leave the country without a receipt from an official cigar shop.
The black market for Cuban cigars extends to the United States as well. Since 1961, when the economic embargo was initiated by President Kennedy, it has been illegal to buy and sell any Cuban product in the U.S. Only those with permission from the U.S. government to travel to Cuba are allowed to bring Cuban cigars into the United States. Officially licensed travelers are allowed to import, from Cuba and not from a third country such as Mexico or Canada, up to two boxes (50 cigars) but no more than $100 in value. Those people traveling illegally to Cuba, or those purchasing Cuban cigars in another country, face confiscation of their merchandise and possible fines. Still, it is possible to import Cuban cigars into the United States and those that do often sell their inventories, at two to three times the in-Cuba value.