Editor’s Note: See also West OC Raids Come After Federal Indictment; Basil, Samer Ramadan Held On Fugitive From Justice Warrants and Accused Md. Cigarette Smuggler Charged In N.Y. Murder-For-Hire Plot.
From: The Dispatch (Ocean City, MD)
WEST OCEAN CITY — One of two local brothers indicted again in October for his role in a vast cigarette trafficking and tax fraud scheme appeared in a New York court on Wednesday and remains held on a $2.5 million bond.
Basel Ramadan, 47, of West Ocean City, appeared in Kings County, N.Y. Supreme Court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing. Ramadan’s West Ocean City home was raided for the second time in five years in October by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security (HSI) officials with support from local law enforcement agencies as part of Operation Sidestep, a months-long investigation into criminal cigarette smuggling and various money-laundering and tax-related crimes.
