Bootlegging, also called smuggling, is a centuries-old occupation, which has a history of being carried out by sea, although bootleggers also work on land.

Bootleggers who work on the water use the vast space of the sea to illegally transport goods between countries – to either avoid tax and import duties, or because the goods themselves are illegal.

England was bootlegging central during the 1700s and 1800s, when taxes were high and criminals took advantage of the country’s long and sometimes wild coastline to illegally import wine, tobacco and luxury goods.

Today, bootleggers continue to illegally transport cigarettes and alcohol around the world, but they also deal in the far more deadly cargoes of drugs and armaments. In addition, a sophisticated international network of “people smuggling” operates, moving thousands of illegal immigrants to first-world countries around the world, in often desperate and dangerous conditions.