Organized crime smuggling tobacco into NJ
Cigarettes are being bought in huge quantities in states like Virginia, where the tobacco tax is very low, and then shipped up the I-95 corridor to New Jersey and New York where taxes are very high, and resold illegally. “Smuggled cigarettes have become the new currency of organized crime, and a lot of these criminal organizations are finding that it’s more profitable than illegal narcotics,” said Rich Marianos, the retired Assistant Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
He said nationwide, states are losing more than $5.5 billion in tax revenues. “That means states like New Jersey are being robbed of taxes that could go to law enforcement, schools, emergency services, vital things that we use every day as taxpayers,” Marianos said. He stressed black market tobacco smuggling has become “a high-profit, low-risk criminal enterprise. Compared to drug offenses where there’s a mandatory minimum sentence, there’s no penalties out there for the cigarette trafficker.” So where are these cigarettes being sold?
“They’re being sold in the bodegas, in the convenience stores, they’re being sold on the street, they’re being sold in the housing projects,” Marianos said, “by street gangs like the Latin Kings, terrorist organizations, the Russian Mafia.”
Related Posts
Gold and electronic goods worth Rs 60.16 lakh seized at Chennai airport
CHENNAI: Air customs sleuths seized gold weighing 606 gram from a passenger, who...
Illicit tobacco funding gangs and increasing use
ILLEGAL tobacco is booming across Australia, funding international criminal...
Massive Gold Seizure At Kozhikode Airport On Third Consecutive Day; Over 2 Kg Gold Seized
A staggering 2,085 grams of mixed gold, valued at approximately Rs 1.15 crore,...
Md. Comptroller’s Office targets cigarette smugglers
The I-95 corridor used to be known for drug running up and down the East Coast...