PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Six men, five from Rhode Island, were arrested Tuesday on federal charges of running a smuggling ring that snuck more than 6 million cigarettes from Virginia for sale in Rhode Island, dodging more than $1 million in state cigarette taxes in the process.
A seventh person, the wife of one of the six, was charged with making false statements to fraudulently obtain food stamps.
The seven were rounded up early Tuesday as teams of state and federal law enforcement agents searched 10 locations, seizing a "significant quantity" of cigarettes, about $100,000 in cash, business records and four vehicles believed to have been used in what U.S. Attorney Atty. Peter F. Neronha described as "a wide-ranging complex interstate criminal enterprise."
A federal grand jury indictment charges the ring set up Virginia corporations to get legal authorization to buy and sell cigarettes there.
But instead, the indictment charges, the conspirators smuggled them to Rhode Island for sale. Cigarette taxes are 30 cents a pack in Virginia, compared with $3.50 in Rhode Island. The ring would sell the cigarettes in convenience stores they owned, the indictment said, and pocket the $3.50-a-pack tax cost.
CORRECTION: The initial version of this post incorrectly stated the number of people accused of running the smuggling ring.
(This entry was first posted at 12:20 p.m. and updated at 12:04 a.m. Thursday)
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