New Jersey: Burlington County Times

Source from:  Burlington County (NJ) Times 07/05/2004

Editor's note: This is the first in a three-part series detailing the recent increase in interstate cigarette smuggling and the role Burlington County plays in it. Kenny Choi may be a "mule" to some, but for decades he seemed to be like any other immigrant in pursuit of the American Dream. In 1978, at age 14, Choi moved from Vietnam to the United States. In the 1980s, the resident of Galloway, Atlantic County, became an American citizen. He found a job, got married and started a family. Along the way, Choi managed to steer clear of legal troubles. "Before this, Kenny didn't have any priors on his record," said Choi's attorney, William Menges of Moorestown. "He's basically a law-abiding, decent man." Then came the day last year that would change Choi's life and could cost him years away from his family. Choi was offered an opportunity to earn cash by loading boxes of cigarettes into a truck in Atlantic County and then driving the cargo to North Jersey. The job wasn't going to make him rich, but it was more than the rate he earned trucking produce around the area and enough to entice his interest, Menges said. Last Oct. 15, Choi and Nhi Lam Wiget, 46, of El Monte, Calif., who Choi knew from Vietnam, teamed up to do the job. "He gets there, and he knew something wasn't right," Menges said. "There's all these unmarked boxes with no commercial markings." But Choi and Wiget loaded the truck and drove north, Menges said. "You get paid to do something, so you do it," Menges said of his client's willingness to continue. At 1:30 p.m., Choi and Wiget found themselves on Route 206 in Mansfield, where police were stopping commercial vehicles to inspect them. A Mansfield police officer spotted Choi's rented box truck and pulled it over for a violation related to markings for commercial vehicles, Menges said. Neither Choi nor Wiget were able to produce a vehicle registration, documentation of the contents of the truck, or destination, authorities said. "(The officer) ultimately smells the tobacco and searched the truck," where 22,750 cartons of counterfeit cigarettes without tax stamps were discovered, Menges said. Special agents from the state Di-vision of Taxation Office of Criminal Investigation were summoned to in-vestigate. Wiget eventually led investigators to a container trailer in Tabernacle, where 10,800 more cartons of counterfeit cigarettes were found, Burlington County Assistant Prosecutor Tad Drummond said. Choi and Wiget were arrested and taken to Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly with bail set at $250,000 each. They were later released after bail was reduced to $50,000 and $125,000, respectively. The newest contraband Law enforcement sources said organized criminal groups see huge profit potential in trafficking counterfeit cigarettes into New Jersey, where taxes have pushed the price of a name-brand carton to more than $50. A carton of counterfeit cigarettes sells for as little as $2 in Asia, according to U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. Years ago, counterfeit cigarettes were poorly made and easy to spot, said Jeff Cohen, special counsel with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. However, manufacturing plants in China produce counterfeit cigarettes today that are much harder to detect and very profitable for large criminal organizations to traffic, he said. Cigarettes have topped the list of counterfeit goods seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection since 2001. The 33,550 cartons seized after the traffic stop in Mansfield were worth an estimated $2 million. It was the largest seizure by the state this fiscal year, New Jersey Treasury Depart-ment spokesman Matt Golden said. If legitimately sold, the cigarettes would have been worth nearly $800,000 in taxes for the state. The penalty Menges said his client was just doing a job. He had no other connection to the counterfeit cigarettes than the time it took to load the truck and drive it to where it was stopped. Law enforcement officers routinely call these drivers "mules" because organized criminals use them primarily only to carry illegal drugs or other contraband. However, the position taken by the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office was that Choi and Wiget were responsible for the contents of the truck. "From our perspective, these guys were in possession of the counterfeit cigarettes," Drummond said. "Whether there has been any collateral investigations resulting from this case, I'm not aware of that." In November, a county grand jury returned an indictment charging both men with tax evasion and counterfeiting. Choi faced 38 years in prison and Wiget 66 years, authorities said then. Conceivably, the two could have been sentenced to decades in prison if convicted on all charges and ordered to serve consecutive sentences, but Drummond said that was unlikely. In February, after consultation with special agents of the state Division of Taxation and negotiations with attorneys for Choi and Wiget, the Prosecu-tor's Office agreed to let the two plead guilty to a single, third-degree tax-evasion charge each, Drummond said. Prison terms would be three years for Choi and five years for Wiget. "The reality of it is, it was one time," Drummond said of the decision to accept pleas in the case. "If it were 10 different occasions, we might have had a better chance" at getting longer prison sentences. Drummond said the men could also be held liable for the $790,000 tax loss the state would have sustained from the untaxed, counterfeit cigarettes. A little hope During that court appearance, Menges requested and received a delay in sentencing until fall. "In this produce business, (Choi) gets most of his work up into October, so we requested this time so he could work and help provide for his wife and two boys," Menges said. "It was kind of the judge to allow it." Menges said he also hoped to get Choi into the Intensive Supervisory Program that provides alternative, in-termediate forms of community-based correctional supervision, allowing some offenders to serve sentences outside prison. Choi is 40 years old with a stable family and an unblemished record before this arrest, Menges said. "My client was looking to make a quick buck and didn't really consider the magnitude of driving down the road with (more than a $1 million) in untaxed cigarettes in the back," Menges said. "He was hired to load cigarettes and drive a truck. That's it. When I was prosecuting, we used to call those guys 'mules.' " Tomorrow: Why cigarette smuggling has suddenly become far more profitable. Enditem