Posted on 01/13/2003 4:44:28 PM PST by Mark
Cigarette robberies smoking in Chesterfield
By: JASON REEVES , Staff Writer 01/13/2003
CHESTERFIELD - County convenience stores have been getting burned by cigarette robberies of late. Since the turn of the New Year, more than 200 cartons of smokes have been stolen from roadside retailers in the latest hits of a crime wave that began before Thanksgiving, police say.
More than 10 cigarette robberies and thefts have been reported in the county since Nov. 1, according to police.
The thefts may be part of a growing cigarette black market, but local officials haven't made a direct connection. Federal authorities believe cigarettes are being bought or stolen in Virginia and North Carolina, where they are among the least expensive in the country, and sold in states like New York and New Jersey where high taxes have pushed prices to an all-time high.
The latest local cigarette thefts took place at the Race Trac at 5600 Jefferson Davis Highway, the East Coast at 6116 Iron Bridge Road and the 7-Eleven location at 212 Turner Road, police said.
In all three reported crimes, armed suspects entered the store, distracted the clerk and removed the cartons before fleeing on foot, police said. No injures were reported.
Police are continuing their investigation of the robberies. Meanwhile, tobacco products are firing up other headlines along the East Coast.
Legislators in Virginia, which currently has the lowest cigarette tax in the country at 2.5 cents per pack, will consider raising its tax during this year's General Assembly session to 20 cents per pack.
More dramatic tax hikes in other eastern states are drawing debate from smokers and businesses who make their money off tobacco users.
Most criticized have been states like New York and New Jersey, which currently have a $1.50 tax per pack on cigarettes, driving the cost of a pack of smokes upwards of $7.
Such high prices are leading to a cigarette black market, critics say, which begins with purchases, or thefts, of cigarettes in states where tobacco prices are low, such as Virginia and North Carolina, and ends with illegal sales in higher-taxed states. Some drug dealers in northern states have even started dealing black market cigarettes instead of illicit drugs because the money is comparable but the potential penalties are much lighter for selling cigarettes illegally, according to published reports.
Anyone with information about the recent Chesterfield robberies is asked to call police at 748-1251 or Crime Solvers at 748-0660.
* Jason Reeves may be reached at 722-5172. ©The Progress-Index 2003
When government raises taxes to ridiculous heights, it drives decent folk to become rebels.
But liberals like Rob Reiner have said that this wouldn't happen.
Well put-- also fits with Rob Reiner.
You gotta be kidding. He was a moral criminal.
Smugglers are heroes.
Yes I am.
And there you have it! Smokers who pay taxes on cigarettes are paying higher taxes then anyone else for a legal commodity.
People aren't stupid. It's the American Way to shop cheap. And it's ashame that it has created robberies. The politicians have turned cigarettes into a nasty business.
This has been going on for decades.. Organized crime & cigarette smuggling go together like peanut butter and jelly.
The latest local cigarette thefts took place at the Race Trac at 5600 Jefferson Davis Highway, the East Coast at 6116 Iron Bridge Road and the 7-Eleven location at 212 Turner Road, police said.
Those cigarettes didn't go more than 2 miles before they were bartered for some rock. Those addresses are all in crack town, especially the one on Jeff Davis, known affectionately to the locals as "The Pike".
Hmmmmm, wonder what difference it makes how high the taxes are or where if you're stealing them...seems more efficient to steal them in NY, sell them there and save the gas.
The man who made all this meddling possible was the Surgeon General during the Clinton administration; a most vain person with his carefully coiffed hair and beard, with the epaulets on his shoulders looking and acting for all the world like someone from central casting. Once upon a time in America, there was freedom of choice...and you couldn’t tax it on a whim...the backlash is coming and it-is-gonna be a doozy!
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