Earlier this month Xing Xiao pleaded guilty in Alexandria, VA for conspiring to hire a hitman to whack a couple he believed had stolen 15,000 cartons of contraband cigarattes from him, and Antonio Tricamo, an associate of reputed mobster Roberto Settineri, was indicted in Miami, FL for allegedly attempting to sell 250,000 cigarettes without paying the Florida tax. The two cases illustrate the increasing role of organized crime in trafficking black market cigarettes as the federal and state governments continue to impose hefty taxes on the product. Indeed, in New York untaxed cigarettes have long been a lucrative racket for the mob as reported by Patrick Fleenor for The Buffalo News:
Serious problems began in the early 1960s, when tax hikes caused organized crime to ruthlessly push aside competitors and dominate the racket. By 1967, a quarter of the cigarettes consumed statewide were bootleg, and the problem was much worse in New York City, where the finance administrator labeled it the "principal stoking facility of the engine of organized crime." * * * [B]y the mid-1980s the cigarette tax was so high that it was "literally more profitable to hijack a cigarette delivery truck than an armored truck," one official said. Today a wide range of criminals smuggle cigarettes. "Traditional organized crime is involved, terrorist groups are involved and street gangs are involved," said one ATF official.
For those who propose that legalizing and taxing marijuana and other illicit drugs will eliminate the criminal element and associated violence from the trade, this country's experience with cigarettes seriously undermines their argument.
