Illicit cigarette gang indicted in US

Three California men have been charged in the US for smuggling thousands of cases of counterfeit and untaxed Phillip Morris cigarettes into the country.

Jia Yongming, Yazhou Wu, and Ricky Le were indicted on charges of transporting contraband Marlboro and Marlboro Lights cigarettes and trafficking in goods bearing counterfeit marks.

According to documents provided by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the defendants transported around 2.3m Marlboro packs between May 2009 and May 2011, which given state taxes of $0.87 per pack was equivalent to tax avoidance of around $2m. FBI agents arrested the three men last July.

The gang's operations seem to have been prompted by an increase in state taxes on cigarette packs from $0.62 to the higher rate in April 2009. The latest budget deliberations could see a major increase in taxation to $1.95 per pack, which is likely to encourage additional contraband activities, according to an ABC news report.


Cigarette image courtesy of Shutterstock