From: Bowery Boogie
A cigarette trafficking operation that used Chinatown buses as proverbial drug mules has been busted by the authorities.
It was an arbitrage opportunity perpetrated by out-of-state opportunists who bought cheap smokes in Virginia – where taxes are way lower – and shipped north for little cost. In the belly of the unregulated Chinatown bus system.
***
Those working and/or living in the vicinity of Chinatown probably grew accustomed to seeing the contraband deliveries transpire in broad daylight. We exposed one such alleged hand-off on Essex Street last year (near Canal), in which crates of cigarettes were loaded into an unmarked van, then likely hauled to bodegas in the vicinity.
