From: Mahwah Patch
Man had 250 cartons of untaxed cigarettes in the car he was driving in Mahwah, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.
Mahwah and Fort Lee police helped indict several individuals involved in
transporting contraband cigarettes across state lines, authorities
said.
***
The indictments ”highlight a recognized pattern of criminal activities” where money is transported to states like Virginia and North Carolina with low cigarette taxes and cigarettes are brought back to the New York/New Jersey area to be sold for an illegal profit, Moninelli said.
- Yousef Khraim, 27, Mohamed A. Hasan, 26, Basem Naser-Eddin, 54, Abdo M. Saidi, 41, and Gamal Alkatteeb, 30 were all stopped by Fort Lee police between September and March.
- Fort Lee police found $28,000 in the car Khraim and Hasin were in during a traffic stop in September 2012; Naser-Eddin and Saidi had $22,000 on them when Fort Lee police stopped the car they were driving in March 2014, authorities said….
