I don't know, until SP campaign is dropped and Alaska is buffed up to how it should be, it will always be an issue. And to be fair, if you want to make any realistic money smuggling, cardamine is your best bet. I timed it once several times with a friend, who went the texas-bering-hamburg-frankfurt-sigma 13-sigma 17-omicron beta-omicron alpha (and back) route, compared to the texas-new york-alaska-omicron minor-omicron 100-omicron major-omicron 90-omicron alpha.
It actually saves you almost 5 minutes by going through Alaska, and sometimes longer depending on how many trade lane disruptions you have happen, so I can't entirely blame smugglers. It might not be the best RP in the universe to go that route, but cardamine simply isn't profitable enough for the time it takes. It isn't profitable enough right now anyway (which is why everyone runs diamonds-niobium). Not to mention you suffer the additional risk of being blown out of space by unlawful corsairs/Order and lawfuls throughout new york and texas (or even higher chances of being shot at if you go through the texas-hamburg-omicron beta route).
![[Image: AiTakedaSignature.jpg]](http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh185/Kuraine/AiTakedaSignature.jpg)