Posted on 09/23/2002 2:55:22 AM PDT by kattracks
Federal and local authorities are investigating links between the booming black market in cigarettes and terrorist organizations after 26 North Carolina men were convicted this summer of funneling the profits from bootleg smokes to the radical Muslim organization Hezbollah.The men, convicted of selling $7 million worth of untaxed cigarettes to dealers in Michigan and elsewhere, were members of a Hezbollah procurement cell, plotting to buy advanced aircraft analysis and design software, blasting equipment, ultrasonic dog repellents, munitions and other military hardware, authorities said.
They sent money to Hezbollah operatives in Beirut through avariety of bank transfers set up under false names and corporate fronts, according to the evidence.
Locally, probes are underway by the NYPD and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, according to several sources. Officials of both agencies declined to comment.
The black market cigarette business - along with credit card fraud and identity theft - has been among the principal funding sources for terrorist operations both inside and outside the United States for more than a decade.
Counterfeit cigarette tax stamps were found in one of the apartments used by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group convicted of planning and carrying out the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. That terrorist group later merged with Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.
William Sherman
The terrorists attacked our freedom. Let's get our freedom back, end drug prohibition and high tobacco taxes. Strike a blow against terrorists.
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