Thousands of cigarettes confiscated from Irwin Ave. home

From: The Riverdale Press

By Sarina Trangle

Law enforcement officials have arrested two Yonkers men they say used 3175 Irwin Ave. as a “stash house” for thousands of untaxed cigarettes and counterfeit tobacco tax stamps.

Nabilh Alghazali, 52, and Mohamed Elgazali, 42, were arrested on May 18, for allegedly attempting to resell 30,000 cigarettes without paying the $6.46-a-pack tax and using counterfeit tax stamps to evade more than $10,000 in tobacco taxes during the past year, law enforcement officials said.

The raid on the Irwin Avenue home yielded 1,454 untaxed cartons — which contain ten packs of cigarettes apiece — and 90,240 counterfeit tax stamps, according to court documents.

Officers said they entered to the two-story, one-family brick house with a contraband search warrant and arrested Mr. Alghazali inside the Kingsbridge home at approximately 9:15 a.m. They charged him with four felonies and four misdemeanors.

They then stopped Mr. Elgazali in a blue 2001 Lincoln Town Car at about 1:30 p.m. and found 20 cartons of cigarettes from Virginia in the trunk, according to court documents.

Mr. Elgazali, who according to court documents is the Irwin Avenue home’s leaseholder, faces six felonies and nine misdemeanor charges for the stash and for selling cartons with counterfeit stamps to the Maswara Deli at 3613 Kingsbridge Ave. on March 31 and April 7.

In New York City, vendors must put a fuchsia stamp on packs showing that the $6.46 in combined state and city taxes has been paid before the cigarettes can be sold.

Neither of the men live in Riverdale or Kingsbridge, but their neighbors got quite a show the day of their arrests.

Approximately 20 law enforcement officials from the New York County Sheriff’s Office and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office collaborated with the city and state departments of finance as they began staking out the Irwin Ave. home at 3 a.m. on May 18. By 9 a.m., nearby residents said they noticed yellow police tape roping off Irwin Avenue between West 231st and 232nd streets.

Neighbors said officers first searched a blue Ford Taurus parked diagonally in the home’s driveway. According to court documents, they confiscated 421 cartons of untaxed cigarettes.

“They were taking massive boxes of those cartons of cigarettes out… They were taking boxes and boxes, and they were putting all the boxes in the little brick house,” said a woman who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. “They even had a baby car seat. They like moved it around a little bit, but didn’t take it out.”

Officers made dozens of trips in and out of the house carrying cardboard boxes stacked with Parliament, Marlboro and Newport cigarettes. They loaded a van up with the cigarettes and a suitcase before driving off shortly before noon.

Officers are still searching for four others they believe are involved in the smuggling ring and who are suspected of supplying bodegas in all five boroughs with un-taxed cigarettes brought in from Virginia, sources said.

Neighbors said they’d lost track of who lived in the Irwin Avenue house because it had been rented to several tenants during the past year or two.

Adam Smith, a dentist at the Irwin Dental Center across the street, said he occasionally saw a car pull in and out of the garage connected to 3175 Irwin Ave.

“He always backed into the garage. It was a black livery cab-looking car,” said Mr. Smith. “He was always polite if we were blocking him.”