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The state’s new $1 per pack tax on cigarettes is expected to raise $700 million for Texas, but smugglers are stealing some of the profits through the sale of black market cigarettes.

In fact, at one southern New Mexico store sales have tripled.

KHOU - TV

“Eight dollars a carton is worth a little bit of a drive,” said Zach Colcord who is a cigarette sales outlet.

That’s what Texans save when they cross the state line to buy cigarettes.

While some smokers go north, others head south and cross the border.

In Mexico, street venders peddle packs for half the price.

Venders say those who buy the goods sneak them back to the states.

In order to do that customers must bypass booths set up by state of Texas to collect taxes at the border.

Officials say determined smugglers know the booths are close at midnight and reopen in the morning.

The Texas tax hike took effect last month and that, officials say, could cause cigarette smuggling to skyrocket.

“I think if the price got high enough they’d definitely develop a black market for them,” said Travis Salazar a Texas smoker.

That, officials say, is already happening.

One method in Mexico is known as “trafico Hormiga” (army traffic).

Like an army of ants smugglers carry small amounts of contraband across the border hidden in cars.

Photos from one federal sting show that international rings traffic in large shipments.

“It’s the same if not more profitable to deal in cigarettes than narcotics,” said David Regalado with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.

Investigators have uncovered a serious danger: counterfeit smokes.

They made the discovering during a bust in El Paso.

The ring that was busted was based in El Paso but supply lines stretched to China.

Officials recovered boxes and boxes of brand name cigarettes that were really fake.

Other cigarettes were made by the manufacturer but only for sale abroad.

Officials say smugglers use fake documents to hide the fact that the cigarettes stay in the U.S. tax free.

That, they say, is happening everywhere.

They say more cases have opened up all over the border and in Canada.