smuggling

thumb|upright=1.35|British H.M. Revenue & Customs officers with seized smuggled tobacco, 2014. Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, social scientists define smuggling as the purposeful movement across a border in contravention to the relevant legal frameworks.

There are various motivations to smuggle. These include the participation in illegal trade, such as in the drug trade/drug cartel, illegal weapons trade, human trafficking, wildlife smuggling or wildlife trade, counterfeiting, game of chance, prostitution, kidnapping, heists, copyright infringement (piracy), chop shops, illegal immigration or illegal emigration, tax evasion, import restrictions, export restrictions, providing contraband to prison inmates, or the theft of the items being smuggled.