A New York prosecutor says five people are facing charges of illegal trafficking of untaxed cigarettes.
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice says more than 100 cases of cigarettes and nearly $1 million was seized. She says Nassau investigators, as well as the NYPD and Queens DA’s office conducted the probe that started in July 2011.
The defendants are accused of buying untaxed cigarettes from undercover police officers. The purchases took place in a storage unit in Garden City.
The cigarettes were then sold to retailers in Brooklyn and Queens or on the street.
Rice says a properly taxed carton of cigarettes in New York is about $90. The defendants were paying approximately $32 per carton. She says that equals a loss to New York taxpayers of $3 million.