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The secret account is at the center of a federal racketeering lawsuit brought on by a collective of tobacco farmers who say they were cheated out of $24 million.

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.

Former FBI agent missing in Iran photographed in Guantánamo jumpsuit By Barney Henderson 8:44PM GMT 08 Jan 2013 The family of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who went missing in Iran in 2007, have released pictures of him dressed in an orange jumpsuit like a Guantánamo Bay prisoner, as they continue to hold hope that he is still alive.

Missing a Father in Iran Daniel Levinson June 22, 2008 It has been 471 days since my father, Robert "Bob" Levinson, went missing in Iran -- more than the 444 days that 52 American diplomats were held hostage after they were seized in Iran in 1979. These past 15 months have brought my mother, four sisters, two brothers and me nothing but grief and sadness. We are no closer to finding answers than we were when our father disappeared March 9, 2007, on Kish Island, Iran. He was on a private business trip, and I emphasize "private" because, although he...

Iran May Consider American's Request August 05, 2007 Associated Press Nasser Karimi TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's Foreign Ministry said Sunday it would consider allowing the wife of an American man who vanished in Iran earlier this year to visit the Islamic country to search for him. "The request has not officially been relayed to us yet. If it is conveyed, we will review it," ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters. On Thursday, Christine Levinson, the wife of missing former FBI agent Robert Levinson said she was planning to travel to Iran in search of her husband even though she...

NEW YORK — Christine Levinson's husband vanished while on a business trip to Iran. Five months later, she's going there to try to bring him back. The mother of the couple's seven children is planning her own trip to Iran in search of husband Robert Levinson even though she's been advised by the State Department not to travel to Iran because of the risk. "I am positive he is alive," Christine Levinson told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday from her home in Coral Springs, Fla. "If he were hospitalized or had been killed, we would have known by...

Immobilized with fear, a 4-year-old British girl huddled for eight hours beneath the legs of her slain mother in the back of a car filled with corpses on a remote Alpine road — all while French investigators stood nearby, unaware the girl was there.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A former FBI agent is being held by Iranian authorities, the Financial Times reported on Friday, but U.S. officials said they were still unable to verify the whereabouts of the missing American. Florida resident and ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson went missing while on a visit to the Gulf island of Kish in Iran early in March. His family has not heard from him since and U.S. officials told Reuters they do not have any valid leads. Diplomats fear the case of Levinson could mark a new twist in apparent tit-for-tat detentions involving the United States, Britain and...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A U.S. senator revealed Tuesday that he believes a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran nearly two years ago is being held in a secret prison there. Sen. Bill Nelson shed new light on the disappearance of Robert Levinson during a confirmation hearing for Hillary Rodham Clinton in Washington. Levinson, of Coral Springs, Fla., was last seen on Iran's Kish island in March 2007 where he had gone to seek information for a client of his security firm.

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DAMASCUS BLAST ON TUESDAY KILLED SENIOR HEZBOLLAH MILITARY COMMANDER - LEBANESE POLITICAL SOURCE

DETROIT -- Two men pleaded guilty Friday to charges of conspiracy to violate the "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act" (RICO), U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy announced today. Imad Majed Hamadeh, 51, of Dearborn Heights, and Theodore Schenk, 73, of Miami Beach, Fla., pleaded guilty here before U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen to the following charges: operating a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes, counterfeit Zig Zag rolling papers and counterfeit Viagra; producing counterfeit cigarette tax stamps; transporting stolen property; and money laundering. Sixteen other defendants faced the same charges. Some of the profits derived from the illegal...

BUDVA, Serbia-Montenegro - Voters are deciding whether to write the final chapter in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and the T-shirts show vividly how divided they are. Sunday's referendum is about whether tiny Montenegro should end its union with big-brother Serbia, and in the Adriatic resort of Budva, vendor Milan Jakic says his red "da" (yes) shirts are selling well. "If you compare the sale of yes and no," he says, "there is no doubt Montenegro will be independent." But six miles away in the quiet fishing village of Bigovo, the "ne" (no) shirt is doing well, and graffiti...

Montenegro has voted for independence from its union with Serbia, according to unofficial projections. If confirmed, the vote would erase the last vestige of the former Yugoslavia. Initial indications are that 56.3% of voters elected to secede from Serbia. The pro-independence bloc needs to win 55% of the vote to succeed. The question of independence has deeply divided Montenegro, with its opponents arguing that it will damage economic, family and political ties with Serbia.

Early on the morning of March 16th, 1984, William Buckley left for work at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Officially, Mr. Buckley, a decorated veteran of the Special Forces, served as the political officer at the embassy. In reality, however, Mr. Buckley was the embassy’s CIA station chief. On his way to the compound, Buckley’s car was stopped by a group of masked men, who forced him from his car at gunpoint. His assailants would later be identified as terrorists from the group Islamic Jihad, which served as an alias for the real perpetrators, Hezbollah. The circumstances surrounding the...

Indians trying to save their reputation 10:42 PM PDT on Friday, June 11, 2004 By PAT McREYNOLDS / KING 5 News TACOMA, Wash. Native Americans are fighting back after federal agents raided 12 tribal smokeshops earlier this week. Shop owners didn't like their businesses being mentioned in the same sentence as Al-Qaeda. Just as motorists cross into Tacoma on I-5, a new sign blinks in to view that says: "We are not terrorists. We are American Indians. We have been fighting terrorism since 1492." KING "We are not terrorists. We are American Indians. We have been fighting terrorism since 1492."...

<p>A 92-count federal grand jury indictment was unsealed yesterday in Texas, naming a ring of suspected smugglers who schemed to transport more than $37 million in bootleg cigarettes throughout the United States.</p> <p>Ten persons were arrested by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during raids yesterday in Texas, New Mexico, New York, Florida and California. The ongoing undercover investigation has resulted, so far, in the seizure of $18 million in counterfeit and genuine cigarettes smuggled into the country.</p>

WASHINGTON - In the largest crackdown of its kind, federal officials said Wednesday they had broken up a cigarette-smuggling operation in five states. Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said ten people have been arrested in Texas, New Mexico, New York, Florida and California. Portions of a 92-count indictment detailing the alleged scheme were unsealed in El Paso. Federal agents have spent more than three years investigating the smuggling operation, which they said sought to bring 5 million packs of bootleg cigarettes into the country. Authorities seized about 2.5 million packs, said to be worth about $20 million. The indictment...

Man Sentenced For Cigarette Smuggling Suspect Must Repay State More Than $2 Million POSTED: 10:57 PM EST January 8, 2004 UPDATED: 11:06 PM EST January 8, 2004 DETROIT -- A Dearborn man convicted of taking part in a multi-state cigarette-smuggling ring was sentenced Thursday to 70 months in prison without the possibility of parole, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins said. Elias Mohamad Akhdar, 31, pleaded guilty in July to a charge of conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. He could have received up to 78 months in prison for the crime under federal sentencing guidelines. Akhdar...

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...