Cigarettes and Tobacco News

Aug 16, 2007 -- Stopping the sale of illegal cigarettes has not been a top priority of law enforcement, despite complaints from legitimate vendors hurt by eroding sales or governments facing declining tax revenues. The recent raid of a Queens warehouse makes the case why this criminal activity must be taken more seriously by local, state and federal authorities.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice thought she was tackling a widespread but straightforward problem: non-taxed smokes bought on Indian lands and then hawked from car trunks for a few bucks less than the cost at a local convenience store. Instead, the undercover investigation by Nassau police led to a Corona warehouse filled with untaxed, and more alarmingly, bootleg smokes from China, with a street value of $3.5 million.

Not only did the fake cigarettes have higher levels of harmful tar and nicotine, but in some cases they were also filled with manure and other vegetation. Dangerously, the counterfeits don't conform to state safety laws, which require that cigarettes burn out if they're not puffed.

The case will be prosecuted by Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, but there is a big role for federal authorities, and it shouldn't end with the deportation of a handful of illegal operatives. What needs to be answered are the more troubling questions of where this cargo entered the country, how it got through customs and whether, as security experts contend, the huge profits made by smuggling cigarettes support terrorist activities.