He deserves punishment.
Posted on 09/21/2002 7:23:47 AM PDT by Deadeye Division
Kentucky man held on tobacco charge
55,000 cigars found in car stopped for violation
By Nancy Bowman
e-mail address: nancy_bowman@coxohio.com
Miami County Bureau
TROY | A Kentucky man stopped for a traffic violation on Interstate 75 faces felonies involving illegal possession of untaxed tobacco after state troopers said they found around 55,000 cigars and $14,450 cash in his car.
A report filed by troopers at the Piqua post of the Ohio Highway Patrol said state tax agents who came to Piqua to help in the investigation set the retail value of the Swisher Sweets brand cigars at $93,000.
The car's driver, Mustafa Yamani, 53, of Burlington, Ky., was arraigned Friday in Miami County Municipal Court.
He is charged with one felony count each of shipping, transporting or distributing tobacco products with the intent to avoid payment of taxes and being a retail dealer of tobacco products and possessing the product without payment of taxes. The charges are fourth-degree felonies which carry a maximum punishment of 18 months in prison.
He also is charged with misdemeanor transporting tobacco products without the consent of the tax commissioner and a traffic violation of following too closely.
Yamani's bail was set at $30,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 26 in Municipal Court.
In a report filed with the charges, Trooper C.A. Coverstone said Yamani's car was stopped around 10:30 a.m. Thursday just north of the Miami-Shelby county line. The trooper running radar from the interstate median said the northbound car was seen speeding in Miami County, slowed suddenly in traffic near the police cruiser and then started following a rental truck too closely.
After stopping the car, Coverstone said boxes could be seen stacked inside. Yamani was unable to provide any paperwork for the cigars although the trooper said a shipping order for 30 cases of tobacco products, worth around $11,900, from an address in Columbus to Yamani's address in Kentucky was found among the boxes.
Coverstone said the money was found, some in a brown paper bag, in the car's glove box.
Yamani told the trooper that the Columbus company had shipped him too many cigars and he was taking them back along with the money because he didn't want the cigars.
The report said a check of Yamani's record showed he had a prior arrest for smuggling and conspiracy out of Detroit.
He was arrested and taken to the county jail.
Contact Nancy Bowman at 335-4357 or nancy_bowman@coxohio.com
Well, it's cheap compared to what I'd pay in the People's Republic of Kalifornia.
Is there a possibility of a funding scheme for extremist Islamic groups?
He deserves punishment.
"If government were a product, selling it would be illegal"
-P.J. O'Rourke
It may not be funny, but governments created this situation with their punitive taxes....... they knew this would happen..... but damn the torpedo's.
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
The Associated Press
9/20/02 6:08 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Linda Harley, a pack-a-day smoker, doesn't need state statistics to tell her people are still buying cigarettes despite a new 31-cent tax.
"I need my cigarettes," Harley, a data entry clerk in downtown Columbus, said Friday as she smoked a Salem during a lunchtime break. "If you're going to buy your cigarettes, it doesn't matter how much they cost."
Ohio earned about $81 million from its new cigarette tax in July and August -- about $6 million more than expected, the Office of Budget and Management announced this week.
Tim Keen, assistant budget director, said the news was good but it's too early to tell if the trend will continue through the year.
Lawmakers approved the 31-cent increase in June to help balance a $1.9 billion deficit. The state estimated the increase, which put the total cigarette tax at 55 cents, would earn an additional $224 million annually.
Opponents of the tax said it would drive smokers to border states where taxes were lower. That theory was never entirely tested because Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania all raised their cigarette taxes around the same time.
The result was that the tax's negative impact still hasn't been felt, said Josh Sanders, spokesman for the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants.
He said the exception is Kentucky, which has a 3-cent cigarette tax. He said Cincinnati stores are continuing to lose sales to Kentucky businesses, although he didn't have statistics.
Sanders said Ohio will lose sales as people turn to cheaper cigarettes offered over the Internet.
But the increased revenue reported by the state defeats the Internet argument, said Larry McAllister, president of the American Lung Association of Ohio.
The association supported the tax and doesn't believe the Internet will cut into retail sales of cigarettes in Ohio.
McAllister attributed the increased revenue to a documented rise in youth smoking that happened before the tax took effect. He predicted the tax will discourage teens from buying cigarettes.
McAllister said his association will push for the tax to be increased again. "Every time it goes up, we have a reduction in youth smoking," he said.
In Michigan, lawmakers raised the cigarette tax 50 cents, to $1.25 a pack beginning Aug. 1. That lessened the impact of the tax in the Toledo area, said Robert Richard, who owns 11 stores along the state line.
"It has not had a great effect because Michigan has had an even higher increase," he said.
Bob Jonas, owner of Ritze Marathon in Cincinnati, said Ohio's tax hasn't hurt his sales of cigarettes, which he sells for about $4.10 a pack.
People complain, "but they keep digging money out of their pocket and buying them," Jonas said.
But Jerry Ruberg, owner of Quencher Drive-Thru, also in Cincinnati, said his sales of cartons have dropped almost 30 percent since the tax took effect. Customers say they can buy cartons $10 cheaper in Kentucky, Ruberg said.
"It's a gold mine for Kentucky," Ruberg said.
It sure is, but they are about to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. Smuggling ang web buying is just now picking up steam.
No, just a common scofflaw who when caught can expect a measure of support among the ideologue-types who are ever ready to excuse criminal behaviors. His now sitting in jail should be considered the consequences of flaunting his personal irresponsibility and shirking his duties.
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Frankly, he should get life without parole for simply possessing Swisher Sweets. |
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