Jersey City man is 5th suspect in bootleg cigarette ring

By Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal
September 25, 2009, 9:00AM


Sameer Alnsour, 46, arrested as 5th suspect in the bootleg cigarette ring.

A Jersey City man has become the fifth person arrested in a crackdown on a ring that allegedly bought cigarettes at low prices out of state and affixed forged New Jersey tax stamps on them to avoid paying New Jersey's $2.70 tax on each pack, officials said.

Sameer Alnsour, 46, of Allen Street, was arrested Tuesday as part of the probe that resulted in seizure of more than $100,000 worth of cigarettes and nearly $280,000 in cash, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday. He is charged with theft by deception, forgery and conspiracy.
"He was an early focus of the investigation," said DeFazio of the investigation triggered by a tip that cigarettes with fake tax stamps were being sold in Jersey City stores. Surveillance in Jersey City led to a Linden storage facility where most of the cigarettes seized were found, and to surveillance at other locations, DeFazio said.

Investigators said Alnsour has a store in Jersey City where he sold cigarettes with the forged tax stamps and he also delivered the cigarettes to other area stores. It's estimated that the state lost more than $1 million in tax revenues due to the ring's activity, DeFazio said. It's believed that large portion of the cigarettes were purchased in North Carolina, DeFazio said.
Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan set Alnsour's bail at $180,000 cash or bond.

Quote:


hopefully never... keeps me from buying a full pack... and smoking more then I should be.

The sell as packs just as easy. Sometimes it's pretty easy to tell when you see a pack with a forged tax stamp.

Im sure that alot if these that were purchased by some of the local stores here in Jersey City were sold as the illgeal "loosies" to the high school children.
When will they crack down on the stores that sell these loosies?

Bust untaxed cigs ring that cost Jersey $1M

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

As a result of an investigation that began in Jersey City, more than $100,000 worth of cigarettes and nearly $280,000 in cash was seized in a crackdown on a ring that forged the tax stamps on cigarette packs to avoid paying New Jersey's $2.70 tax on each pack, officials said.

Based on the scale of the enterprise, it is thought the state may have lost more than $1 million in tax revenue due to the criminal enterprise, said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio.

This type of operation "generates a tremendous profit for the defendants and of course is taking money from the citizens of New Jersey," said DeFazio, whose office conducted the investigation with the New Jersey departments of Homeland Security and Treasury.

"This money would have gone into the treasury of the state and it is diverted instead to the pockets of these defendants."

Investigators believe the group regularly bought large quantities of untaxed cigarettes in other states at significantly lower prices than in New Jersey and transported them to a storage facility in Linden, DeFazio said.

They opened each carton and affixed a forged New Jersey or New York tax stamp to each pack before reloading the cartons and selling them at bargain prices to stores in northern New Jersey and New York, DeFazio said.

During searches last week, investigators also seized thousands of counterfeit tax stamps, DeFazio said, adding that a clothing iron was apparently used to affix the stamps to packs of cigarettes.

On Thursday, investigators arrested Elizabeth residents Rajae Awad, 39; Anwar Ghani, 46; and Jamal Abbadi a.k.a. Jamal Alyazjeen, 40; as well as Ahmad Aldabesheh, 48, of Mohegan Lake, N.Y., DeFazio said. They were charged with theft by deception, forgery and conspiracy and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, DeFazio said

DeFazio said those arrested are all natives of Jordan and said, "There is evidence that at least some of the money generated was forwarded to Jordan, but there is no reason to think it went to any sort of terrorist activity." The Jordan connection is the reason the state Department of Homeland Security joined the probe.

The investigation began months ago when officials got a tip that cigarettes with counterfeit tax stamps were being sold in Jersey City stores, DeFazio said. Surveillance in Jersey City led to the Linden storage facility, and to surveillance there and at other locations, DeFazio said.

Investigators believe a large portion of the cigarettes were purchased in North Carolina and detectives traveled there this weekend and recovered records at a storage facility believed to have been a staging site for the ring, DeFazio said.

Stores that were visited by the State Division of Taxation and found with the cigarettes could face administrative penalties, said DeFazio.