24
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
MAY/JUNE 2014
NEWS & TRENDS
MAY/JUNE 2014
New York plans to crack down on il-
legal tobacco trafficking and sales
with the help of a newly formed strike
force made up of local, state and fed-
eral agencies who will work together to
stop the sale of counterfeit and untaxed
cigarettes. State Governor Andrew
Cuomo says that the goal is to “crack
down on these illegal sales and capture
those smugglers who seek to evade the
law and rob the state of the revenue it is
rightly owed.”
By combining resources, the mem-
bers of the strike force will be able to
both improve their database of crime-
related intelligence and share critical in-
formation as the team works to disrupt
and dismantle major trafficking organi-
zations.
The initiative will be coordinated and
managed under the leadership of the
tax department’s Criminal Investiga-
tions Division, which has named its
own Michael Spinosa as chief inves-
tigator to supervise the Strike Force.
Spinosa has a background in law en-
forcement, specifically focused on
money laundering, fraudulent docu-
ments, and advanced surveillance.
Prior to joining the tax department he
was a detective sergeant with the New
York City Police Department, where
he supervised long-term narcotics in-
vestigations. Under Investigator Spi-
nosa’s leadership, the tax department
has seized contraband cigarettes in 18
separate cases already this year.
The current tax on a pack of 20 ciga-
rettes in New York state is $4.35; in New
York City there is an additional $1.50 in
tax added to the $4.35. The penalty for
possession of unstamped cigarettes is
$600 per carton and possible criminal
charges.
“This seasoned team will take a
multi-pronged approach to cigarette
tax enforcement,” says Risa Sugar-
man, deputy commissioner of criminal
enforcement for the tax department.
“In addition to targeting the trafficking
itself, we will use our intelligence cen-
ters and audit powers to trace financ-
ing activities and stop the criminal or-
ganizations at the roots of the crimes.”
Assets seized during strike force in-
vestigations will be shared among par-
ticipating agencies. The members of
the strike force include:
• New York State Department of
Taxation and Finance
• United States Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
• United States Custom and Border
Protection
• United States Department of
Homeland Security
• United States Food and Drug
Administration
• New York County District
Attorney’s Office
• Richmond County District
Attorney’s Office
• Rockland County District
Attorney’s Office
• Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s
Department
• Erie County Sheriff’s Department
• New York City Sheriff’s Office
• Niagara County Sheriff’s Office
• Suffolk County Police Department
New York Targets Illicit Trade
Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced a new “cigarette strike force.”
Siegel Challenges TPSAC Member Assertion
Professor Michael Siegel of Boston
University’s School of Public Health
recently commented on a statement
by Dr. Jonathan Samet, chair of the
FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific
Advisory Committee and director of
the USC Institute for Global Health,
that e-cigs should be treated like
combustible products because nico-
tine vapor could “contaminate the air
[people] breathe” and “contaminate a
chair, and [people] could touch it and
nicotine can go through the skin.”
Prof. Siegel of Boston called the state-
ment “the sort of hysterical nonsense
that now passes for science in the to-
bacco control movement,” pointing
out that the most conservative exist-
ing estimates of nicotine levels pro-
duced by vaping say the amount of
nicotine that a bystander inhales after
eight straight hours of exposure to
a full room of vapors in a bar is only
0.08 cigarette equivalents.
