smuggler

noun

smug·​gler ˈsmə-glər 

plural smugglers

: one who smuggles something

The traffic in drugs—especially cocaine—to Florida by sea and air from South America has been generating wealth to rival that of the tourist trade and attracting a cadre of ingenious and ruthless smugglers from around the world.

—Jeremiah Tax

In nearby Nogales smugglers tunnel 6 ft. under the border and funnel people through.

—Terry McCarthy

Officials in Paraguay raided a wildlife smuggling operation in its capital city, Asunción, on March 25, recovering two critically endangered Brazilian parrots, which Paraguayan smugglers had hoped to sell in West Germany for $40,000.

—Focus

Synonyms

• bootlegger
• contrabandist
• courier
• runner

Examples of smuggler in a Sentence

during Prohibition, smugglers of alcohol did a brisk business

Recent Examples on the Web

Jordanian troops opened fire, killing twenty-seven smugglers and wounding several others. —Ed Caesar, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2024

Yet by August of that year, as migrants and human smugglers found ways around the enforcement regime, crossings began a steady rise. —Julia Preston, Foreign Affairs, 25 Oct. 2024

Then Egyptian smugglers take them to the city of Aswan. —Ryan Lenora Brown, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 Oct. 2024

The river border landscape in Underbelly provides both a picturesque backdrop and perfect cover for would be smugglers, as the series will show. —Stewart Clarke, Deadline, 22 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1661, in the meaning defined above