Posted on 11/05/2009 7:47:43 PM PST by elkfersupper
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Fourteen people have been charged with illegally purchasing 77 million contraband cigarettes from undercover agents in Virginia and smuggling the cigarettes to New York.
Two are also accused of paying an agent posing as a hit man to kill a husband and wife whom they believed had stolen from them.
The indictments handed up Thursday in federal court in Alexandria are the culmination of a yearlong investigation.
Authorities say the smuggling ring paid $8 million plus guns and drugs to the undercover agents for the cigarettes.
Cigarette smuggling has increased in recent years as high taxes in New York and elsewhere have made the crime more profitable.
The defendants lived in Virginia, Maryland, New York and the District of Columbia.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Ping.
A lot of smugglers would not exist if not for high taxation and nanny state laws.
One day I had too much time on my hands and I measured a freind’s pack of cigarettes. I calculated how many packs would fit in a semi-truck van (8’w x 48’L x 9’h), then multiplied by $5/pack. It was in the millions! Truck-jacking could be real profitable.
100% profit in Obamatimes makes it worth the effort (and gamble)
We could get rid of these smugglers if we would just legalize tobacco.......
Pretty much.
Fall’s Church. This is most likely a Muslim operation financing Hizballah.
(snicker)
That’s why the “let’s tax marijuana and drive the traffickers out of business” argument is such an utter farce.
I’m not getting something here. 77 million cigarettes divided by 8 million dollars equals $9.63 per cigarette.
What am I missing here?
We can thank our government for creating a black market where there wasn't one before and where the profits will be able to fund all sorts of nefarious activities. Wonder if the cigarettes themselves are coming from the Middle East? I was buying Marlboros for $10 a carton in Dubai just a couple of years ago. They're even cheaper in other countries.
You’ve got the wrong thing in the denominator. The way you have it is 9.63 cigs per dollar.
What am I missing here?
By my calculations $8 mil divided by 77 million cigarettes equals $0.10 per cigarette or $2/pack. How much is a pack of smokes going for in new York these days?
It should be 8 mm dollars divided by 77 mm cigarettes. Thats about 10 cents a smoke.
Tobacco taxes are out of control and indicative of what the Government will do to taxation of Marijuana.
Where we had next to nothing in tobacco smugglers ten years ago, look where we are now. All due to taxes and the nanny state.
Holy cow, I’m an idiot!! Many people on this site have long suspected this. Suspicions confirmed!
I divided 77 mil by 8 mil instead of vice-versa.
Smuggle a truck, just rent one from U-Haul. Very simple...but when you have 13 people working with you...it’s not so easy to keep a secret.
Public school math?
I’d love to see the figures on tobacco-tax revenues since April’s “for the children” tax hike. I’ll bet anything they’ve gone down dramatically.
I know they haven’t gotten a dime out of me since the increase. And I had a pack-a-day American Spirit habit.
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