Editor’s Note: Another demonstration of the relatively low penalties for cigarette trafficking compared to those for less profitable black market goods.
From: WTVR.com | CBS 6
by Scott Wise
LOUISA COUNTY, Va. — A man was ordered to pay a $38,450 civil penalty after he was busted with 7,940 packs of cigarettes in his car. Fateh Al-Hayani, 37, of New York, admitted to police he bought the cigarettes in Virginia and planned to sell them on the black market in New York. He was recently convicted of cigarette trafficking in Louisa Court.
Packs of cigarette in New York can cost twice as much as packs of cigarettes in Virginia. Money made from the sale of black market cigarettes often funds organized crime, according to the Sentencing Commission
