Editor’s Note: For more about this story, please see the previous postings, Multi-million dollar cigarette smuggling ring with terror links busted, Ramadan Brothers Extradited One Week After Local Arrests; 300-Page Indictment Details Lengthy Conspiracy, Ramadans have OC business licenses, Samir Ramadan, alleged cigarette smuggling ringleader, held on $15 million bail, A third Ramadan brother cites fallout from pair’s cigarette smuggling case, Ramadans To Appear In Court, Business Owners: Cigarette Smuggling Hurts Small Shops, Ramadan Brothers Remain In Custody After Hearing, Ramadan Indicted On Murder-For-Hire Charges; Authorities Say He Orchestrated Plot From Prison, and Ramadan Attorneys Dispute Terrorism Link, To Fight Murder-For-Hire Charges.
From: The Dispatch
OCEAN CITY — After months of legal wrangling, a trial date has now been set for two Ocean City residents indicted by a New York grand jury in May 2013 in a vast multi-million cigarette smuggling and money laundering scheme that culminated in raids on their resort area homes and businesses.
In May 2013, federal officials concluded an investigation into a massive and lucrative cigarette smuggling operation based in and around the resort area with raids on two locations, including the West Ocean City homes of local residents and business owners Basel Ramadan, 43, who has been called the “ringleader,” and Samer Ramadan, 41, who is being called the operation’s “enterprise treasurer.”
