This Is What Half A Million Smuggled Cigarettes Look Like

A Staten Island man’s lucrative cigarette-smuggling business went up in smoke this week, authorities announced Friday, after a seven-month investigation revealed he was in possession of over half a million untaxed cigarettes. Michael Zekry, 67, was pulled over by police in the New Springville section of Staten Island early Wednesday morning while driving a white van, the Richmond County’s District Attorney’s Office said. A search of the vehicle allegedly uncovered over 2,000 cartons of cigarettes, all with stamps indicating that they were from Virginia. After obtaining a search warrant, officers found another 550 cartons of Virginia-stamped cigarettes inside Zekry’s apartment, along with $40,000 in cash and a cash-counting machine, authorities said.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/cigarette-smuggling-michael-zekry_n_6122880.html