NYPD sources confirm that Eric Garner was a player in an organized crime cigarette smuggling syndicate, Gotnews.com has learned.(snip) “Garner was setting up shop in front of the local stores and shaking down business owners and patrons as they entered,” says Cardillo. Garner would use his considerable size to strong arm largely ethnic shopkeepers and was “on the radar” of local law enforcement who had arrested him previously.