Fireworks spark up a black market economy
California bans anything that flies into the air and explodes. Which isn’t surprising — according to the American Pyrotechnics Association, most states have restrictions on this type of firework.
For Californians who want to celebrate the independence of our nation by blowing things up, they could head over the mountains to more firework-friendly Nevada, or head into the virtual black market on your computer.
On Craigslist you’ll find listings like “Air shows Disneyland style cheap” and “I HAVE FIREWORKS FOR SALE WHENEVER YOU NEED THEM.”
You can find bottle rockets, roman candles, and mortars with just a mouse click and a phone call. But what’s harder to get is an interview with one of these dealers. Which makes sense, because having a large quantity of illegal fireworks is a felony in California, punishable by a year in jail and up to $50,000 in fines. But one firework dealer in Stockton is willing to take the risk.
“It’s not something I prefer to do, you know there’s always that spice of danger that you have to watch out for,” he says.
In a well-lit parking lot at night, the young, friendly man lays out some of his merchandise on the hood of a car. What keeps fireworks coming into California are people like him and his business partner.
“I have a buddy of mine who goes down to Nevada and brings back a U-haul truck that’s full and then basically I just help him distribute it,” he explains.
Their truck carries about $2,500 worth of product, and he figures they will double their money on resale. This vendor is relatively small time. In other parts of the state, police recently seized stockpiles of fireworks worth more than half a million dollars .
“If it is that profitable enough, then there are big criminal enterprises working in this area- quite professionalized,” says Steve Weber, who teaches at UC Berkeley’s School of Information and co-wrote a book on the Black Market Economy of the 21st Century. “The mistake is to think of this as fly by night stuff- these are really serious people and they are as entrepreneurial, innovative and venturous as anyone you’d meet in Silicon Valley.”
Actually, there’s a hotbed of illegal firework trafficking just south of Silicon Valley. The police department in San Jose says the crime ranks low on its list of priorities.
But Keith Gilless, chair of the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, says it’s a major concern. “California is the most flammable place on earth by most people’s reckoning, we can have 400-500 fires a year whose origin is fireworks.”
All those fires can cost millions in damage, and millions more to put them out. Something, Gilless says to consider before lighting up this Fourth of July.
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