Those Are My Cigarettes Ms. Ratchet

So… let me get this straight. You haven’t worked since March. Nobody is hiring, desperation sets in and you are looking at the stack of bills on the table with your head in your hand. The phone rings. Your friend’s friend is on the line with what sounds like the best offer you’ve had all year. Drive a van down to North Carolina and simply buy cigarettes, 5 cartons at a time at as many convenience stores as possible. Work your way up through Virginia and bring them back to New York. You make a cool $500.00 every time you do it. Sounds easy enough right? Well congratulations, you just became a trafficker of contraband that has major organized crime implications.

Cigarettes in New York City sell for over $13 dollars a pack, not much of a riddle when you can buy them for $5.15 per pack in Virginia.  For Example:

Mohamed Seid Ahmed Mohamed of Chesterfield County pleaded guilty in federal court in September to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to trafficking in contraband cigarettes worth almost $20 million over a 2½-year period. He faces up to five years in prison when sentenced. Mohamed used a cigarette shop and a restaurant as fronts in his operation, which authorities said cheated Virginia out of more than $1 million in sales tax.

However if you have more than 25 cartons but less than 200 cartons you could be guilty of a class 1 misdemeanor…Read More

§ 58.1-1017.1. Possession with intent to distribute tax-paid, contraband cigarettes; penalties.

Any person who possesses, with intent to distribute, more than 5,000 (25 cartons) but fewer than 40,000 (200 cartons) tax-paid cigarettes is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor for a first offense and is guilty of a Class 6 felony for any second or subsequent offense.

Lots of good people get arrested trying to do the right thing in the wrong way. Trafficking  cigarettes is a good way to get on the bad side of the law. A real good way to get arrested!

Check Out How New York Does It!……

ttps://nypost.com/2020/02/09/nyc-store-allegedly-hid-bootleg-cigarettes-with-remote-control-shelf/?utm_source=url_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons