In point lookout anyone who has played it probably knows there are enemies known as smugglers. There is one interesting question I have about that. How are they smugglers if there is no government or authority to be smuggling past? Smugglers are supposed to move goods and other illegal cargo past the authorities. The thing is, in the wasteland there isn't really any authorities to smuggle past. Interesting lol.

They roam Point Lookout hoping to find profit from its rumored hidden treasures. Despite being called smugglers they do no smuggling.

Yeah, it just looks like a poorly thought out name choice more than anything. Did make me laugh and start looking around for some authority the first time I encountered it. They must have been struggling with the 'ol thesaurus entry on "raiders".

NV nicely sidesteps the problem by having actual named factions like The Fiends or The Kings, etc. with back (& forward) stories, so they don't get the same old generic title of raider or scavenger all the time. Not that every one you encounter has dialogue, but in a given area the bad guys will mostly belong to the gang that owns the turf, and if you're on good terms with them, they won't attack you.

They smuggle Punga Fruit back to the Capital Wastes for the merchants to sell.

Maybe the smugglers are smuggling past other smugglers for profit outside the regular smuggling smugglers?
The smugglers may find this smuggling to be bad smuggling and they may want to kill the smuggler for smuggling under the smugglers noses?

This. So much.

Well maybe they smuggle into places like Rivet City that have some semblance of law and order.

Why DC? They could be smuggling goods into the commonwealth for all we know.

Or there's always the republic of Dave. Those kids might have a taste for moonshine, but don't want president dad to find out

Probably "smuggling" applies to any half-organized transportation of goods for commercial use in the post-apocalyptic Wasteland. Of course this isn't the reason they named them "Smugglers", but I prefer to think it as corruption and mutation of language after a more or less absolute language code is lost with the schools and offices of the world.

Think it's just a bit of sloppy artistic direction. There are no laws and no taxes and nothing is illegal, so no smugglers as such. I suppose the creators just wanted to add to the spooky clandestine seaside atmosphere by adding some "smugglers". At least they didn't have a wooden sailing ship and flintlock pistols.

Don't get me wrong, I thought PL was the best. But this did make me raise an eyebrow.