Thread: 14 People Charged With Illegally Purchasing 77M Cigarettes

14 People Charged With Illegally Purchasing 77M Cigarettes

Thursday, November 05, 2009

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Fourteen people have been charged with illegally purchasing 77 million contraband cigarettes from undercover agents in Virginia and smuggling the cigarettes to New York.

Two are also accused of paying an agent posing as a hit man to kill a husband and wife whom they believed had stolen from them.

The indictments handed up Thursday in federal court in Alexandria are the culmination of a yearlong investigation.

Authorities say the smuggling ring paid $8 million plus guns and drugs to the undercover agents for the cigarettes.

Cigarette smuggling has increased in recent years as high taxes in New York and elsewhere have made the crime more profitable.

The defendants lived in Virginia, Maryland, New York and the District of Columbia.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,572365,00.html

The government gets to keep the money and cigarettes.

I hope they sell the cigarettes for a nice profit.

I'll buy some! As long as they have my brand!

Oh great. Now we have criminals selling cigarettes. As if we didnt have enough problems. The tax is too high FGS. Now there is a black market profit. So how much will it cost to chase around this new smuggling business that our government created?

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

The government gets to keep the money and cigarettes.

I hope they sell the cigarettes for a nice profit.

They are already getting a nice profit...now they have pushed things over the edge. What we dont need are more criminals killing each other in the street and that is where we are going. And the cigarettes came from agents in the first place didnt they? So they had to buy them from someone. So I dont think they make a profit. Oh ....except the mob level taxes they charge.