'''Контраба́нда''' — перемещение через таможенную границу государства товаров или иных предметов, оговоренных таможенного контроля либо с обманным использованием документов или средств таможенной идентификации либо сопряженное с недекларированием или недостоверным декларированием.

Также контрабандой считается невозвращение временно вывезенных ценностей, не подлежащих вывозу (например, произведений искусства).

Под контрабанду подпадают три основных класса товаров и два вида услуг. 
Экономическая сущность контрабанды состоит в том, чтобы не платить налоги и таможенные пошлины. Не считается контрабандой перемещение товаров и услуг, которые законодательно запрещены в конкретной стране. Учитывая то, что контрабанда идет из беднейших стран в богатейшие - можно считать, что сие - порок общества, т.е. контрабанда - это "удовлетворение порока общества по заниженной цене".

Классы товаров: Личное пользование (табак, алкоголь, кофе, драгоценности, автомобили и т.п.); Государственное/Корпоративное пользование (оборудование для государственных контрактов, металлы, углеводороды, ресурсы); Транзитное пользование (товара и услуги, перемещаемые через границу конкретного государства, но предназначенное для другого государства). 

Основным показателем работы таможни любой страны мира считается "количество возбужденных уголовных дел и выявленных сумм (и товаров) по которым не уплачены пошлины". При этом в 100% случаях конфискованный товар продается компаниям и населению, через дочерние структуры таможенных органов по заниженным ценам. В 100% случаях конфискат продается "своим", которые потом реализовывают его по рыночной стоимости или чуть ниже рыночной стоимости. 

Контрабанда и коррупция - это спутники друг друга. Всего 3-5% от выявленных случаев - это случайные люди в контрабандном бизнесе. 90% невыявленных сумм и товаров - стабильный бизнес, который "делится" с таможенными органами, а те, в свою очередь его крышуют. В подавляющем большинстве контрабандой промышляют корпорации, затем следует государство, и на последнем месте -  частные лица/товары для персонального пользования. Ведущими контрабандистами являются органы, контролирующие безопасность любой страны (армия, органы внутренних дел, разведка, медицина). 

Научные основы контрабандизма были заложены учеными-египтологами, которые разработали комплекс как законодательных, так и логистических и скрытых методов перемещения ценностей из Египта в Европу.

thumb|A skirmish with smugglers from [[Finland at the Russian border, 1853, by Vasily Hudiakov.]]
'''Smuggling''', also known as '''trafficking''', is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons past a point where prohibited, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of the law or other rules.

There are various motivations to smuggle, most but not all of which are financial. These include the participation in illegal trade, such as drugs, emigration, tax evasion, providing classified documents from a government or corporate office.

==Etymology==
The word probably comes from the Proto-Germanic verb ''smeugan'' (Old Norse ''smjúga'') = "to creep into a hole". Other sources say it comes from the word ''smooky'' (fog) which was used in West Flanders.

==Smuggled goods and people==
Much smuggling occurs when enterprising merchants attempt to supply demand for a good or service which is illegal. As a result, illegal drug trafficking, and the smuggling of illegal arms trade), as well as the historical staples of smuggling, alcohol and tobacco, are widespread. As the smuggler faces significant risk of civil and criminal penalties if caught with contraband, smugglers are able to impose a significant price premium on smuggled goods. The profits involved in smuggling goods appears to be extensive.  

Profits also derive from avoiding taxes or levies on imported goods. For example, a smuggler might purchase a large quantity of cigarettes in a place with low taxes and smuggle them into a place with higher taxes, where they can be sold at a far higher margin than would otherwise be possible. It has been reported that smuggling one truckload of cigarettes within the United States can lead to a profit of US $2 million.<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23384-2004Jun7.html Cigarette Smuggling Linked to Terrorism]</ref>

With regard to involuntary trafficking of people. An estimated 90% of people who illegally crossed the border between Mexico and the United States are believed to have paid a smuggler to lead them across the border.<ref>[http://www.havocscope.com/trafficking/mexicohuman%20smuggling.htm Mexico Human Smuggling]</ref>

People smuggling can also be used to rescue a person from oppressive circumstances. For example, when the Southern United States allowed slavery, many slaves moved north via the Underground Railroad. Similarly, during The Holocaust, Jews were smuggled out of Germany by people such as Algoth Niska.

==Smuggling methods==
With regard to crossing borders we can distinguish concealment of the whole transport or concealment of just the smuggled goods:
*Avoiding border checks, such as by small ships, private airplanes, through overland smuggling routes, smuggling tunnels and even small submersibles.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/20/drug.subs/index.html Coast Guard hunts drug-running semi-subs - CNN.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> This also applies for illegally passing a border oneself, for illegal immigration or illegal emigration. In many parts of the world, particularly the Gulf of Mexico, the smuggling vessel of choice is the go-fast boat.
*Submitting to border checks with the goods or people hidden in a vehicle or between (other) merchandise, or the goods hidden in lugguage, in or under clothes, inside the body (see containers, and overland hidden in cars, trucks, and trains. A related topic is illegally passing a border oneself as a duty levied on alcohol and tobacco in Britain has led to large-scale smuggling from France to the UK through the Channel Tunnel.

For illegally passing a border oneself, another method is with a false passport (completely fake, or illegally changed, or the passport of a lookalike).

==Legal definition==
In popular perception smuggling is synonymous as illegal trade. Even social scientists have misconstrued smuggling as illegal trade.<ref> Thursby, M., Jensen, R. and J. Thursby: ‘Smuggling, Camouflaging, and Market Structure’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1991, p.789.</ref> While the two have indeed identical objectives, namely evasion of taxes and/or importation of contraband items, their demand and cost functions are altogether different requiring different analytical framework. So illegal trade through customs stations should be differently considered, and smuggling should be defined as international trade through ‘unauthorized route’. A seaport, airport or land port  which has not been authorized by the government for importaiton and exportaiton is an ‘unauthorized route’. Normally legal definition occurs in the Customs Act of the country. Notably, some definitions include any 'undeclared' trafficking of currency and precious metal  like gold in the fold of smuggling. Smuggling is a cognizable offense in which both the smuggled goods and the goods are punishable. 

==History==
Smuggling has a long and controversial history, probably dating back to the first time at which duties were imposed in any form.

In Britain, smuggling became economically significant at the end of the 18th century, although of course it was carried out to a greater or lesser extent prior to this high-water mark. The high rates of duty levied on wine and spirits, and other luxury goods coming in from mainland Cleveland, the smuggling industry was for many communities more economically significant than legal activities such as farming and fishing. The principal reason for the high duty was the need for the government to finance a number of extremely expensive wars with France and the United States.

In colonial times was a reaction to the heavy taxes and regulations imposed by mercantilist trade policies. After American independence in 1783, smuggling developed at the edges of the United States at places like St. Mary's in Georgia, embargo of 1807-1809, these same places became the primary places where goods were smuggled out of the nation in defiance of the law. Like Britain, a gradual liberalization of trade laws as part of the Prohibition, and drug smuggling became a major problem after 1970. In the 1990'es, when economic sanctions were imposed on Serbia, a large percent of the population lived off smuggling petrol and consumer goods from neighboring countries. The state unofficially allowed this to continue or otherwise the entire economy would've collapsed.

In modern times, as many first-world countries have struggled to contain a rising influx of immigrants, the smuggling of people across national borders has become a lucrative extra-legal activity, as well as the extremely dark side, people-trafficking, especially of women who may be enslaved typically as prostitutes.

==Human trafficking==