Product type Cigarette Introduced 1997 | Produced by Baltic Tobacco Company | |
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Jin Ling is a Russian brand of cigarettes produced by Kaliningrad-based manufacturer Baltic Tobacco Company (Russian: Балтийская табачная фабрика, BTC). The name is derived from Jinling, the older name of Nanjing, where the brand was originally developed by the Chinese state-owned Nanjing Tobacco Factory. After the brand died out, Baltic Tobacco Company re-introduced it in 1997.
The packet design resembles the American brand Camel in colour, typeface and layout, but instead of a camel, it features a wild sheep. Jin Ling cigarettes are only sold illegally and the brand is the first to be designed explicitly for smuggling. It has been reported by customs officials as the "most seized" brand in Europe; in 2007, 258 million Jin Ling cigarettes were seized by authorities in EU countries.
In 2011 it was reported in the UK's Daily Mail newspaper that tests on Jin Ling cigarettes had found them to contain trace amounts of industrial chemicals and faeces.
In April 2014 the cigarette was linked to a house fire in Spalding in which a 71-year-old woman, June Buffham, had died. Emma Milligan, a Trading Standards Officer at Lincolnshire County Council, said: "Jin Ling cigarettes are so dangerous because they don't go out when not actively being smoked, potentially causing a horrendous house fire, like the case here."