From: WSPA TV
By: Graeme Moore & Anderson Independent Mail
Federal officials have disrupted a ring of conspirators who illegally purchased and sold untaxed cigarettes totaling millions of dollars in an operation that spans from Virginia to South Carolina, according to federal prosecutors.
Over the past couple of days, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have rounded up several Upstate men and charged them with numerous conspiracy charges.
According to a spokesman for the US Attorneys in the Western District of Virginia, the suspects “acquired untaxed cigarettes” in Virginia and transported them to South Carolina for distribution.
Over the three-year undercover investigation, “members of the conspiracy have paid undercover law enforcement officers approximately $20 million for untaxed cigarettes,” according to Brian McGinn, a spokesman for the US Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia.
In Mauldin Wednesday, ATF agents were at the Planters Row subdivision.
7 On Your Side was there as one person was taken into custody.
Neighbors say they’ve heard gunshots occasionally coming from a home at 8 Grove View Trail.
In Anderson, agents removed hundreds of boxes from a business, according to our news coverage partners at the Anderson Independent-Mail.
The Independent-Mail reports that about 20 agents and officials went to the warehouse, parking nondescript, unmarked cars on both sides of the road, which is lined with similar-looking warehouses.
The metal-sided warehouse targeted by the ATF is on Metro Drive, not far from the Chromarat plant on Salem Church Road. The warehouse had no identifying marks on the outside, except for a sign that tells customers to use a regular door on the front instead of a warehouse bay.
Click here to read the rest of the article from the Anderson Independent-Mail.
