From: Queens Chronicle
A Flushing resident has been charged with second-degree trademark counterfeiting and other charges following the seizure of approximately 1,400 cartons of cigarettes; 14,500 counterfeit Virginia tax stamps and $32,000 in cash from two apartments in Flushing.
It is alleged that the defendant was seeking to shortchange the State out of approximately $200,000 in tax revenue.
The defendant is Ricky Lin, 33, of Maple Avenue. Lin was arraigned on Friday before Queens Criminal Court Judge Stephanie Zaro on a criminal complaint charging him with 14,547 counts of first-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. Lin, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, was ordered held on $15,000 bail and to return to court on Feb. 10.
According to the criminal charges, as part of an ongoing, long-term investigation, investigators were in the vicinity of Lin’s Maple Avenue residence on Jan. 25 when they allegedly observed him leave the location while wearing a knapsack and pushing a bicycle with an attached basket containing an open plastic shopping bang in which were cartons of cigarettes.
Investigators allegedly recovered 18 cartons of cigarettes from Lin’s knapsack and the bicycle basket, as well as $284 in cash from Lin’s person and keys to his residence and another apartment on Pople Ave.
In executing two court-authorized search warrants that day, it is alleged that police recovered 3,945 counterfeit Virginia tax stamps from the Pople apartment and 1,397 cartons of cigarettes, 10,602 counterfeit Virginia tax stamps and approximately $32,000 in cash from Lin’s residence.
