News Forum

BY ERIK SHILLING

The Record

STAFF WRITER

GARFIELD — A city man has been charged with distributing and possessing counterfeit New Jersey tax-stamped cigarettes, authorities said Thursday.

Piotr Ligmanowski, 35, was arrested in a parking lot outside a store in Garfield on Wednesday after a two month investigation, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said. Investigators found 59 cartons of cigarettes bearing counterfeit New Jersey state tax stamps in Ligmanowski’s possession at the time of his arrest.

An undisclosed amount of cash and a number of additional cartons of cigarettes — many of which were from other states — were later found in a search of Ligmanowski’s apartment, Molinelli said.

Northampton – Eugene Grinberg got his cigarettes from China.

Ordering online, he bought knock-off versions of Newport – tax-free – for $17 to $19 a carton.

Once they arrived at his Northampton home, he’d smoke some and sell the rest to friends and acquaintances for $35 to $40. (Real cartons of Newport cigarettes sell legally for $60.)

On Tuesday, Grinberg, 30, paid dearly for those smokes. A Bucks County judge sentenced him to 2 1/2 to five years in prison for possessing and selling untaxed and counterfeit cigarettes.