Do you still lose reputation if you are +30 with a faction and trade illegal goods?

[nflszhu]

As title says - wondering if I'll still lose reputation with VIG if I start to mine ice and trade water and food rations in their space? Am hoping they will ignore me since I'm currently +30 with them lol

[Raptor34]

Apparently you get a special license to trade those goods once you've reached a high enough level.
No need for 30 but higher than 20 I think.
Also it's not mentioned afaict.

[GCU Grey Area]

Do occasionally lose rep (from +30 with ARG) due to storing illegal goods at my HQ in Black Hole Sun, so from what I can tell they don't overlook illegal goods simply due to high rep. Incidentally, stuff's there in case I need to fake a ship scan to complete a mission (i.e. buy cheap ship & load it with precisely 1 unit of whatever I need to find; then fly it to the appropriate sector, sell it to a relevant faction & then do the scan).

Rep loss due to illegal goods is relatively minor for me & +30 rep is usually regained comparatively swiftly due to all the legal trade do with them. However the rep losses definitely occur & could be more severe if there are multiple ships which could be scanned while actively trading illegal goods.

Not saying don't do it, it's just something to watch out for & would recommend having a passive source of rep gain (e.g. legal trade) to counterbalance potential rep losses due to scanned ships discovered transporting illegal goods.

[Raptor34]

I should clarify that I was specifically talking about VIG and their food racket. When you become good friends they let you in on the deal apparently.
Drugs and booze for other factions remain illegal.