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 TRENTON
- The Department of the Treasury's Division of Taxation announced today
that its Office of Criminal Investigation played an integral role in
a multi-state, federal task force operation that has resulted in the
apprehension of 12 individuals who comprised an alleged illegal cigarette-trafficking
ring.
The
United States Attorney's Office in Richmond, Va., announced last Thursday
that 10 of the men were arrested and charged with offenses including
wire fraud, money laundering, and the possession/distribution of contraband
cigarettes to 60 retail vendors and two tobacco wholesalers. If convicted
on all counts, the 10 face maximum sentences of 20 years imprisonment
and fines of up to $1 million. The remaining arrests included wholesale
cigarette distributors in New York on charges they were selling the
cigarettes obtained in Virginia and bearing either counterfeit New York
or Virginia tax stamps.
"These
arrests can be attributed to the skillful and determined efforts of
officers from both state and federal law-enforcement agencies, including
the men and women of our Office of Criminal Investigation and the New
Jersey State Police," said Bob Thompson, director of New Jersey's
Division of Taxation. "We are pleased that this investigation has
yielded such promising results and caution anyone who knowingly disregards
their tax obligations to take note of our enforcement initiatives."
New
Jersey Taxation agents and New Jersey State Police officers, in conjunction
with agents and officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the
United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the U.S. Attorney's
Office, Eastern District of Virginia; the Virginia State Police, the
Virginia Division of Alcohol Beverage Control; the New York State Department
of Taxation and Finance; the New York State Police; the New York Police
Department; and the Pennsylvania Office of Criminal Tax Enforcement;
conducted a sting operation that lasted approximately seven months.
The
investigation began after agents from New York's Department of Taxation
and Finance placed an advertisement for A&A Tobacco Wholesale in
an Arabic-language newspaper located in New Jersey. The ad provided
a Virginia telephone number for individuals interested in purchasing
tobacco products at wholesale prices. Callers responding to the advertisement
were redirected to an Arabic-speaking taxation agent in New York who
informed them that the cigarettes sold would bear counterfeit tax stamps.
The traffickers purchased more than 71,000 cartons of cigarettes at
a storage facility on Route 301 in King George, Va., at a cost of nearly
$2.2 million. They subsequently transported the cigarettes to New York,
where they were sold illegally. The resulting tax loss to New York was
almost $2.5 million.
New
Jersey officials contributed significant intelligence and operational
support to the task force, including information related to tax stamp
counterfeiting that was derived from the surveillance and arrest of
traffickers.
This
operation was inspired by the success of a similar sting last year that
began with the placement of an advertisement in a Russian-language newspaper
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