From: Lincoln Journal Star
By LORI PILGER
After deliberating for nearly two days, a federal jury Wednesday found two Lincoln residents not guilty of conspiring to smuggle contraband cigarettes from Vietnam.
Nhu Van Phan and Tang “Janny” Nguyen faced a string of 14 charges, any one of which could have sent them to prison.
But, in the end, the jury returned just one guilty verdict, finding Tang Nguyen had possessed contraband cigarettes. She faces sentencing April 12.
The two were among six accused of playing a role in a plot to smuggle cigarettes into the country, evading U.S. taxes and reselling them for a profit.
The others — Tang Nguyen’s sister, Kim Nguyen; Teo Van Phan, an unrelated family friend of Nhu Van Phan’s; Thuy Nguyen and Hoan Van Huynh — have entered pleas and are set for sentencing.
Neither Tang Nguyen nor Van Phan were alleged to be the masterminds or even to have made money on the scheme.
The investigation started with a tip that Teo Van Phan, a Nebraska City man, was getting boxes of the cigarettes in the mail and reselling them without a license or paying state or federal taxes.
When the tipster agreed to help law enforcement by buying cigarettes while they listened, the label on the shipping box led them to the Lincoln home of Nhu Van Phan.
Post office monitoring turned up more packages from Vietnam and another name, Kim Nguyen.
A trash pull at her north Lincoln home turned up 32 cardboard boxes, 20 mailed to her and 12 to Tang Nguyen, who lived a couple of doors down.
At trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Mickle argued Tang Nguyen and Nhu Van Phan were complicit by allowing the packages to be sent to their Lincoln residences and argued they were guilty as charged of conspiracy, smuggling, tax evasion and mail fraud.
Defense attorneys Stu Dornan and Chad Primmer argued the government didn’t prove Tang Nguyen and Nhu Van Phan intended to defraud anyone or knew it was illegal to get cigarettes from Vietnam.
The two were lumped in with the true conspirators and never should have been charged, they said
