Counterfeit Cigarette Bust Nets Elmhurst Man: DA

Source from:  timesledger.com By Jeremy Walsh 08/16/2007 08/17/2007

A Queens man was among three arrested in a counterfeit cigarette raid involving a warehouse in Corona that netted half a million packs and $325,000, the Nassau County District Attorney announced Monday. Elmhurst resident Min Liang Yu, 21, and Brooklyn residents Ru Dong Chen, 46, and Yulin Zhuang, 43, all Chinese nationals, were each indicted on 297,457 counts of trade counterfeiting, 125,000 counts of possessing forged instruments charges and three counts of tax violations stemming from the number of fake tax stamps in the case. Prosecutors said it was the largest number of charges filed in recent memory. Yu was being held on $500,000 bail, while Chen and Zhuang were held on $250,000 each. Their next court date is Aug. 21. If convicted, they each face a maximum of 15 years in prison for the forgery charges and four years for the tax violations. Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, said Yu was previously arrested on July 7 in Nassau County on charges of selling untaxed cigarettes. The investigation began in February when the Nassau County Police Department received a tip about counterfeit cigarettes coming into the county. After detectives made a series of purchases from spots in Nassau and Queens counties, the investigation led to a warehouse in Corona, which police said was the citywide headquarters of the operation. Authorities said the ring brought the bogus cigarettes in from China at $12 a carton, selling them out of car trunks in Nassau County and to mom-and-pop stores in Queens for around $25 a carton. The standard wholesale price for a carton of cigarettes is around $70. Brown, whose office is prosecuting the case, said the counterfeit cigarettes are even more dangerous than regular cigarettes because they have not passed U.S. safety inspections and are believed to contain much higher levels of tar and nicotine. "This case will go a long way toward closing down the illegal distribution network that has retail outlets all across the New York-metropolitan area filled with untaxed counterfeit cigarettes," Brown said. Ryan said the counterfeited brands included Marlboro, Newport and a number of Chinese labels. He said the cigarettes are cosmetically identical to the real thing, and consumers would only be able to tell the difference by lighting up. "These cigarettes are inferior to American products. They probably have a harsher taste," he said, pointing out that in New York cigarettes are required to have a mechanism that extinguishes the cigarette if it is not actively being smoked. "If the cigarette was just laying there and didn't go out, it would be a good indication of counterfeiting," Ryan said. The owners of the small stores who stocked the goods may not be off the hook, either. "If they were buying cartons of cigarettes at below wholesale prices, they should have been suspicious of where the goods were coming from," Ryan said, adding the state Department of Taxation and Finance will be investigating that aspect of the case. Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300 ext. 154. Enditem