ILLICIT CIGARETTE TRAFFICKING
Life is full of trade offs. Proponents of the
higher cigarette tax believe that making smoking products
more expensive will improve public health by discouraging
its use. Today, New Jersey’s tobacco tax is $2.05. The new
State budget proposes a third increase in three years to
$2.50.The trade off, however, has been an increase in
illicit cigarette trade. This cigarette crime wave is
becoming a huge money maker that has been linked to terror
cells in the United States. A carton of cigarettes sells
for $75 in New York City. What happens is this; if the
product isn’t stolen at the outset, groups go to states like
Virginia (tax is 2.5 cents per pack) and purchase cartons,
or cases, of cigarettes for $20 per carton. These criminal
groups then sell to retailers at a profit of $40 per carton.
The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) estimates
that smugglers can make about $2 million on a single
truckload of cigarettes. You have to ask yourself where this
money is going. While it is natural for people to shop for
a bargain, who wouldn’t want to pay $50 or $60 instead of
$75? Purchasing cigarettes out of the trunk of a car is
obviously illegal. Cigarettes can only bee sold from
licensed retailers. Furthermore, all legal cigarettes sold
in this State bear a New Jersey State tax stamp on the
bottom of the pack. Although the bootlegging of cigarettes
has been around for decades, the link to suspected terrorist
groups is a new and growing threat. With huge profits and
low penalties for arrest and conviction, illicit cigarette
trafficking has begun to rival drug trafficking as a funding
source. According to the Washington Post, the first
large-scale cigarette trafficking case tied to terrorism was
prosecuted in North Carolina in 2002. Mohamad Hammoud was
convicted by a federal jury for providing material support
to terrorist groups by funneling profits from a
multimillion-dollar cigarette smuggling ring. The jury also
found Hammoud, the leader of a terrorist cell, and his
brother, guilty of smuggling, racketeering and money
laundering. The two men are natives of Lebanon, and smuggled
at least $7.9 million worth of cigarettes out of North
Carolina and sold them in Michigan. Mohamad Hammoud was
sentenced to 155 years in prison. For more information on
the cigarette tax, please contact my office at 732-708-0900
or
asmcorodemus@njeg.org.
|
