Posted on 09/07/2005 10:52:29 AM PDT by Calpernia
In the weeks since federal authorities said they smashed a smuggling ring that brought counterfeit cash, cigarettes, and drugs into the U.S., additional raids have netted $5 million more in bogus cigarettes and $2 million more in fake U.S. currency.
Operation Royal Charm, in which 87 Asians and U.S. citizens were arrested in mid-August, netted $4.4 million in high-quality fake $100 bills, more than 1 billion counterfeit cigarettes worth $42 million, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ecstasy, methamphetamines and Viagra, officials said.
At the time of the arrests, officials said some of the cigarettes were made in China and the money appeared to have been produced in North Korea.
Since the arrests, authorities seized an additional $1.8 million worth of cigarettes in southern New Jersey on Aug. 21, followed by a seizure of $2.7 million worth of cigarettes the next day at Port Elizabeth, according to the FBI.
On Aug. 23, approximately $2 million in counterfeit U.S. currency, commonly referred to as ``super notes,'' were seized by Taiwanese and American authorities in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, authorities said.
And on Aug. 24, more cigarettes worth more than $500,000 were seized in northern New Jersey.
Some of the arrests were made when alleged smugglers expected to attend a lavish wedding aboard a yacht in Atlantic City but were instead transported into the hands of federal agents.
The Lackawanna and Michigan Terror cells were also involved with cigarette smuggling. I would love to know what the specific origins were of the 'Asians' mentioned above.
oops..
guess I'll have to head to Va.
>>>At the time of the arrests, officials said some of the cigarettes were made in China and the money appeared to have been produced in North Korea.
Of interest.
http://goexcelglobal.com/NJ_DefenseForce/images/iraqitour.pps
Notice the picture of the books on how to create fake identitication. It is from Korea.
Street value? (I'm guessing)
I don't think smokers would want to buy bogus cigarettes.
Maybe the cigarettes are real, and it is the ring that is bogus?
I don't think smokers would want to buy bogus cigarettes.
Maybe the cigarettes are real, and it is the ring that is bogus?
Was Torricelli arrested? He's probably in it up to his eyeballs.
The cigarette smuggling with Lackawanna and Michigan were gray market. So you are probably right that these weren't counterfeit.
warfare, plain and simple
It is not some much the cigarettes are bogus - although who knows what some of them may contain - it is more the packaging and tax stamps that are bogus....and that's a major part of how the value is determined.
I remember reading something about tax stamps with the Lackawanna incident!
I believe you are correct.
It has become a huge problem because the outrageous taxes - and what is the government solutions, go after the people who purchase the cigarettes on line and increase the taxes even further.........which is what initiated the problem to begin with.
Guess I need to ping all my usual suspects!!!!!!!!!!
PUFF!!!!
Correct.
Several years ago there were tons of obscure brands in SE Asia, the packaging is easy enough to produce by entities that can bootleg DVD's and create multi-language subtitles within 72 hours of release.
Doing a Marlboro package and cigarette tubes would be child's play.
There was one popular brand - Jet - that tasted like a Marlboro but was also synonymous with "tax evasion". It was smuggled in several countries and *never* had a tax stamp.
No one knew where the heck it came from but my guess was always Burma.
Not a surprising development.
To call something a 'bogus cigarette' implies that it's not really a cigarette at all. That's why smokers wouldn't want them.
On the other hand, if it wasn't a ring, the police wouldn't want them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.