Posted on 06/08/2004 5:05:45 AM PDT by general_re
Smugglers with ties to terrorist groups are acquiring millions of dollars from illegal cigarette sales and funneling the cash to organizations such as al Qaeda and Hezbollah, federal law enforcement officials say, prompting a nationwide crackdown on black market tobacco.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has more than 300 open cases of illicit cigarette trafficking -- including several with terrorist links -- up from only a handful five years ago, ATF sources said.
"This is a major priority for us," said Michael Bouchard, assistant director of the ATF. "The deeper we dig into these cases, the more ties to terrorism we're discovering."
The lucrative trafficking of cigarettes, known as cigarette diversion, is a simple scheme but difficult to stop, law enforcement officials say. The traffickers purchase a large volume of cigarettes in states where the tax is low, such as Virginia and North Carolina, transport them up Interstate 95 to states such as Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and then sell them at a discount without paying the higher cigarette taxes in those states.
With huge profits -- and low penalties for arrest and conviction -- illicit cigarette trafficking now has begun to rival drug trafficking as a funding choice for terrorist groups, said William Billingslea, an ATF senior intelligence analyst who has studied the issue extensively.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Right.
To: Know your rights
Here is a link to the abstract of the study....
Environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality in a prospective study of Californians, 1960-98
Conclusions The results do not support a causal relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality, although they do not rule out a small effect. The association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed.
113 posted on 06/08/2004 11:27:42 AM PDT by Gabz (RIP President Ronald W. Reagan 1911-2004)
Well lets add on. The nation is banning smoking in restaurants, bars, airports, all public buildings. The nation has special taxes on the products smokers use. The nation bans advertisements from smokers. The nation shuns movies that has smokers in them. The nation has placed entire health departments against smoking. The nation has charged smokers more for health and life insurance.
However none of these steps have been taken against foreigners.
Maybe esteem is too weak a word to describe the nations attitude to smokers. Maybe the word should be despise or hate.
Yes. It has also been shown to be linked to an increased risk in coronary deaths.
Why don't you post that quote again, you know, the one that said "tenous link."
And you didn't get to a thousand posts on that *other* thread, did you? Shame..../sarc
haha! Smoke gnatzies and terrorists !! :^D
I am well aware of this............however that is no longer the case. Excise taxes are now used to balance budgets and control behavior. Not exactly what the founding fathers envisioned.
The taxes are being imposed on a luxury item which folks can choose to use or choose to avoid.
This a contradiction of your previous statement, where you stated that all sorts of products have excise taxes. Taxing luxuries is not a fiscally responsible manner in which to run government. Gasoline and diesel or are not luxuries for those who need to go somewhere who wish to have food and other goods in the local store. However the excise taxes on these, in many places, are earmarked for road maintenance which is sensible.
Other types of excise taxes do not make such sound fiscal sense, particularly when they are used for covering budget shortfalls or funding of specific on going budget line items. As you say, many of them are luxuries which can be or not be purchased. There is a certain level at which those purchases will begin to dry up either because people stop using the products or they find another means of obtaining them.
The current black market isn't going to last because the low tax states will increase their taxes.
Why do you insist the solution is to raise taxes? Raising taxes was the cause of the problem to begin with. Why in heaven's name would you advocate increasing the taxes on people who live in a low tax state to solve the problems of ahigh tax state? Talk about a disconnect..........
You are again blaming the victim for the crime. I did not cause the problem of smuggled cigarettes in NY or other states, why should I be the one that is forced to pay the price. I'm not buying or selling bootleg cigarettes, but your solution is to punish me for their crimes.
Doubtful. All they need to do is go after a small percentage in order to scare the honest folks.
Maybe, maybe not. I don't know.......all I do know is that the recent increases of smuggling are due to extortionate taxes. It is human nature to seek the lowest price for products, and sometimes that leads to honest folks doing things they normally wouldn't.
A perfect example is people who live in states with high sales taxes shopping in states with lower or no sales tax. Technically it is illegal for a Maryland resident to shop in Delaware and not go home to MD and pay the state the sales tax they would have paid had they bought it at home.......
High taxes are the problem.......higher taxes can never be the solution.
Whatever.
You were the one that made the reference and were cluttering up the discussion of taxes with your circular nonsense and refusal to provide the correct link.
"The nations are God's."
Even Cuba? How about Iraq under SH?
When Know your rights asked for details, I referred him to that other thread for information and tried several times to get him to that other thread but he insisted on responses in this thread. I was hoping to get him to the other thread so we could get it up to over 1000 posts but no luck.
"The nations are God's."
We better increase the tobacco taxes so we can offer more welfare funded abortions!
No, I insisted on specific proof rather than needle-in-a-haystack assignments. Now that I know your intentions, I'd be glad to help roll over that thread's postometer.
Every nation has its power from God.
Really makes you wonder, the Lackawana 6 turned into the lackawana 60.
"When the price is outrageous in one place ($7.50 in NY City) and reasonable in another place ($3.00 near KC, MO in some places), the penalty for doing so light, and the profit to be made really very good, what does the government expect?"
Are you implying that this smuggling would not occur if the penalties were increased? I would suggest that as long as there is huge demand for cheaper cigarettes and a healthy profit to be made in supplying same, this smuggling would go on regardless of the possible punishments. Some who currently smuggle might decide to give it up if the possible penalties increase substantially, but others would only see that as an opportunity to increase their business and ultimately their profits filling the supply void for those who quit the business or get busted and sent away.
This type of black market operation is not unlike the illegal drug markets. Increasing penalties and arresting and incarcerating more and more people does not reduce supply because as long as there is demand, someone is going to step up and supply that demand if he can make a few bucks doing it. When one dealer is busted it just means more business for the rest. Supply/availability remain stable.
The only way to cure this problem is to lower taxes in these high tax areas to the point where it is no longer profitable to bring in cigarettes from neighboring states. As long as people are able to double their money selling illegal smokes, there will be people selling illegal smokes whether the penalties are increased or not.
No, I'm not saying the smuggling would stop if the penalties were to increase.
I'm saying that if the penalties increased there would be a much more dangerous class of person doing the smuggling.
The only way to cure this problem is to lower taxes in these high tax areas to the point where it is no longer profitable to bring in cigarettes from neighboring states.
I agree with that completely. It won't happen in the near future due to the states balancing their overweight budgets on the back of taxes just such as this.
I support Native Americans at $11.50 per carton, Senecawinds.com.
I've never seen the likes of being able to buy a legal commodity, yet being treated like a criminal doing so!
And just think: our wonderful lawmakers who smoke buy their cartons TAX FREE in their commissary's. Sucks, I say!
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