Printer FriendlyPage Cigarette smuggling funds terrorists

Indian Country ^ | February 8, 2003 | Indian Country Staff

[carbon14]

CATTARAUGUS, N.Y. - Two women from the Seneca Nation of Indians' Cattaraugus reservation are linked to a cigarette-smuggling ring that sent funds to a terrorist organization, federal authorities said.

The money allegedly went to Hezbollah, the Islamic militant group. Hezbollah, a terrorist organization is said to be responsible for the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. In November 2001, the United States put Hezbollah on the list of foreign terrorist organizations whose assets can be seized.

Authorities allege the leader of the smuggling ring, Elias Mohamad Akhdar, a native of Lebanon, who has taken part in Hezbollah incidents in Lebanon - hid on the Cattaraugus reservation while being sought.

Brady Jo Bowman, was charged in the indictment Feb. 4 when she was identified as the companion of alleged ringleader Akhdar, 30, of Dearborn, Mich. Bowman's grandmother, Carole Thompson Gordon, 58, is accused of heading the New York-based operations of the group. Agents said she hired her daughter, granddaughter and others from the reservation to transport untaxed cigarettes to Michigan for resale. The indictment shows a number of wire transfers between Michigan and New York by Gordon for cigarette sales she made as "Indian Trader Carole Gordon" to Akhdar.

Prosecutors say Akhdar used Bowman, whom he has two children with - to ensure a supply of cigarettes from the Seneca reservation to his group, using phony credit cards, he and others bought thousands of dollars of cigarettes from Seneca smoke shops, The Buffalo News reported.

Cigarette sales on the Seneca reservation, as well as any mail order and Internet sales, are legal as long as they originate from the sovereign reservation. The group sold them to retail shops by manufacturing phony Michigan tax stamps and putting them on contraband cigarettes, where each carton smuggled meant a savings of $12.50 in Michigan taxes, prosecutors said.

The charges in Detroit describe a criminal venture that includes contraband cigarette trafficking, possession of counterfeit cigarette stamps, credit card fraud, money laundering, arson and witness tampering. Eleven people face charges that include conspiracy to commit a pattern of racketeering activity, including arson in the fire at Bowman's Indian Express Smoke Shop in Irving, N.Y. They are accused of shipping the cigarettes to Michigan from the smoke shop, then burning down the building Sept. 24, 2001, and filing a phony insurance claim.

After being arraigned on in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, Gordon and Bowman were released on bond.

Akhdar has now been called a flight and security risk. He is being held without bail in Detroit. Akhdar had sent part of the profits to help finance the Hezbollah military group in Lebanon, prosecutors said.

Federal prosecutors also said that Akhdar had been involved in more than a half-million dollars worth of cash transactions with Mohamad Hammoud, who was convicted in North Carolina last summer in a cigarette-smuggling ring that helped finance Hezbollah.

According to a report from the Buffalo News, in addition to the charges related to the Cattaraugus reservation the group is accused of buying thousands of cartons of cigarettes from North Carolina, where taxes are 50 cents a carton.

[carbon14]

Radical Indians are associating themselves with Fidel Castro and with other totalitarians, so it would not be surprise to find the next devastating terrorist attack spawned from "sovereign territory" that is located within the U.S.

[qam1]

Unintended Consequences of greedy politicians who raise cigarette taxes to obscene levels.

Thanks Pataki and Bloomberg for putting us in more danger.

[HadEnough]

"Unintended Consequences of greedy politicians who raise cigarette taxes to obscene levels"

No, no, no these are the unintended consequences of square of the hypotenuse of the price of beans in Argentina, I hold these truths to be self-evident.

My statement makes just as much sense as yours does...

Here is the real root cause.

GREEDY traitorous Indian hos get in bed (literally) with home-grown terrorist camel humpers to the mutual benefit of both pieces of sh*t.

The traitorous behaviors of two hos, followed by the logical behaviour of avowed Muslim enemies does not equal "greedy politicians" making money off the sale of drugs (cigarettes).

[qam1]

I am not letting those Indians off the hook if they are involved, However if the cigarette taxes of many states like New York and Michigan weren't so obscenly high then there wouldn't be a market for the contraband cigarettes.

[Cboldt]

contraband funds terrorists >ping<

p.s. the government defines what is contraband

[Bud Bundy]

And for every two cents the terrorists get from cigarettes, they het a half million bucks from oil sales.

[lockjaw02]

Here is the real root cause.

Come back and try again after you learn the meaning of root.

[Otis Mukinfus]

So you think it's OK for them to get the two cents. Is that what you mean?

[Orangedog]

Now now...we musn't scale back any "good government policy" to defund terrorists. Not when Washington has all that money to fight the problem that the greedy state governments created. Why, if we just got rid of the incentive that over taxed cigarettes provides, it might put some cops and prison guards out of work. And then there is the tax revenue "for the children." Yes, we must always shut up and pay up when that sucker-line is used.

[Orangedog]

The two cents wouldn't be there if the states wouldn't have jacked up the cigarette taxes so much. But that's ok...we can't risk losing government jobs and social programs by getting rid of what makes cigarette smuggling so profitable to start with.

[lockjaw02]

Bingo

[Timesink]

contraband funds terrorists >ping< p.s. the government defines what is contraband

No more calls please, we have a winner!

When the government interferes with the sale of products people want to buy, it just becomes a new funding source for some form of organized crime, EVERY SINGLE TIME. Terrorists, gang members, the mafia, you name it. One of them will step in.

[gridlock]

Cigarettes should either be completely legal, taxed at a normal rate, largely unregulated, and subject to product liability like any other product out there, or completely banned. This halfway banning and taxing scheme is an open invitation for mischief.

[GeekDejure]

The traitorous behaviors of two hos, followed by the logical behaviour of avowed Muslim enemies does not equal "greedy politicians" making money off the sale of drugs (cigarettes).

Sheeesh... I can't stand it when your truth sticks its nose under the tent of Amereicn ignorance !!! ;-))

.

[Just another Joe]

Here is the real root cause.

I don't know that that is the root cause.
I don't know what the root cause is other than muslim fanatics.
It is still unintended consequences of greedy politicians that makes the selling of 'contraband' cigarettes a possibility for funding terrorists.

[Great Dane]

The responsibility lies with over-taxing politicians.

[Great Dane]

does not equal "greedy politicians" making money off the sale of drugs (cigarettes).

Oh, yes it does.

[July 4th]

Does this mean we can attack and annex these sovereign nations?

[Great Dane]

EVERY SINGLE TIME. Terrorists, gang members, the mafia, you name it. One of them will step in.

And why is it, the government doesn't get upset with organized crime and such.

[Just another Joe]

And why is it, the government doesn't get upset with organized crime and such.

Because they don't smoke?