Monthly Archives: December 2013

Editor’s Note: The anti-trafficking proposal discussed below ignores the massive supply of counterfeit, off-brand, “plain white” and other illicit cigarettes. For more information on the supply of contraband cigarettes and its consequences, please see CRE’s comments to the FDA titled, Weaponizing Poverty.

From: Reuters

Tracking cigarette packs may boost public health, researchers claim

NEW YORK — A federal program that let law enforcement trace cigarette packs from manufacturer to consumer would reduce interstate trafficking and boost the public health benefits of state cigarette tax policies, researchers say.

From: Reuters

Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City has sued FedEx Corp, accusing it of illegally delivering millions of contraband cigarettes to people’s homes and seeking $52 million in fines and unpaid taxes.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, marks one of the last acts by the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose more than decade-old campaign to ban smoking in various public and private places has been credited with saving thousands of lives and become a blueprint for other cities.

From: Syracuse.com

By John O’Brien

SYRACUSE, NY – A cigarette maker got a court order in Syracuse this week to stop a store in Northern New York from selling large amounts of counterfeit Marlboros.

Philip Morris USA Inc. sued Big Boy’s Gas & Tobacco and its owner, Alex Garrow III, claiming he sold counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes to the company’s undercover buyers seven times over the past two months, for a total of 14 cartons.

U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby issued an order Monday for the store in Hogansburg, on or near the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation, to stop selling the fake smokes.

From: WMIcentral.com

PINETOP — Navajo County Sheriff’s Office (NCSO) deputies assisted around 60 Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents in taking down a cigarette smuggling operation Dec. 10.

Aside from the tobacco, reports are that a large quantity of weapons, along with around $1 million in cash, was recovered from properties in the Pinetop Lakes or Pinetop Country Club areas.

Being an ATF case, all questions have been referred the agency’s public information officer. NCSO Chief Deputy Jim Molesa did say the bust was in relation to a nationwide investigation involving sales of untaxed tobacco.

From: Federal Bureau of Investigation

U.S. Attorney’s Office/District of Maryland

December 11, 2013

Criminal Proceeds Laundered Through Eastern Europe