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Smuggled, Untaxed Cigarettes Are Everywhere in New York City
Village Voice ^ | 04/07/2015 | Jon Campbell

Posted on 04/15/2015 7:49:04 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen

As six armed officers pour out of two unmarked Ford Explorers on a Long Island City street corner, you can see the confusion on the faces of gawkers and passersby. One woman looks up from her phone and does a sitcom-worthy double-take when she notices their windbreakers, embossed with the word "SHERIFF" in big gold letters, front and back. That might be because few have ever heard of the New York City Sheriff's Office. But those who have know what happens next. And, not surprisingly, when they burst into a corner store near 40th Avenue and 21st Street, the clerk seems not at all shocked, nor particularly concerned, to see them. This is not his first rodeo, as it were.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.villagevoice.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cigarettes; newyork; smuggling; taxes
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1 posted on 04/15/2015 7:49:04 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen
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To: Kid Shelleen

Nobody could possibly have foreseen this development.


2 posted on 04/15/2015 7:50:09 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Wow. And like tea, the taxed cigarettes should be thrown in the Gowanus Canal ...it might improve the water quality


3 posted on 04/15/2015 7:53:52 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Almost as if there were some great incentive to smuggle cigarettes.


4 posted on 04/15/2015 7:54:25 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Kid Shelleen

NY is so overtaxed that it is a wonder the people haven’t taken to armed revolt. It will happen, you can bet on that. That is why this bunch of criminals that own NY have done everything to take guns away.


5 posted on 04/15/2015 7:54:51 AM PDT by Logical me
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To: MrB

When I was a young guy working at an auto plant in Ohio in the late 60s, there were always guys with trunk fulls of low tax Kentucky cigs selling at shift change.

And that was when the difference in price was literally pennies.

Back then I had never heard the word “arbitrage”


6 posted on 04/15/2015 7:56:52 AM PDT by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Even when I was driving truck up “in the NE area ... “ ....


7 posted on 04/15/2015 8:03:05 AM PDT by knarf
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To: Kid Shelleen

Maybe they should lower their cigarette tax.


8 posted on 04/15/2015 8:04:18 AM PDT by WayneS (Barack Obama makes Neville Chamberlin look like George Patton.)
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To: Vaquero
Wow. And like tea, the taxed cigarettes should be thrown in the Gowanus Canal ...it might improve the water quality

LOL. That's a thought. The filters on the cigs, cleaning up the waterways.

9 posted on 04/15/2015 8:04:24 AM PDT by deoetdoctrinae (Become a monthly donor and END FREEPATHONS!)
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To: Kid Shelleen

This was a gift to organized crime.

Marijuana and Rx pill profits have been going down so they simply created another market


10 posted on 04/15/2015 8:06:45 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: Kid Shelleen

“They shoo the clerk from his perch by the register; he saunters over to lean on the edge of the ice cream cooler at the center of the store, already looking genuinely bored. He doesn’t even watch the action — he peers at his phone, taking occasional bites out of the sandwich in his other hand or sipping Pepsi through a straw from a can. One of the deputies tells him to stay right there, and to put his phone down.”

Is he under arrest, fascist? Didn’t think so.


11 posted on 04/15/2015 8:13:08 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: MrB

[ Almost as if there were some great incentive to smuggle cigarettes. ]

Almost seems like it...

Pretty soon you can start smuggling sugar and trans-fats into NYC for great profit!


12 posted on 04/15/2015 8:14:44 AM PDT by GraceG (Protect the Border from Illegal Aliens, Don't Protect Illegal Alien Boarders...)
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To: BenLurkin

[ Nobody could possibly have foreseen this development. ]

We are so lucky to live in a country where the full repercussions of laws and regulations are taken into account before they are even passed or put into effect.

If there is one great thing about Pro(re)gressives it is how much though to the long term and short term consequences of their laws and how they always take into account human nature.


13 posted on 04/15/2015 8:17:23 AM PDT by GraceG (Protect the Border from Illegal Aliens, Don't Protect Illegal Alien Boarders...)
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To: Logical me

We’re talking about NYC. Most of these pukes vote Dummycrat. Armed revolt is too rightwing for them.


14 posted on 04/15/2015 8:23:34 AM PDT by max americana (fired liberals in our company last election, and I laughed while they cried (true story))
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To: MrB

In nearby NJ I’ve bought cigarettes with stamps in Cyrillic letters, Chinese, and some regular ones (all with no tax stamp at all). So many foreigners run convenience/liquor stores here they probably have friends passing through the revolving door that is this country’s borders bringing in the maximum duty-free cigs they can.

They can’t even stop these people from selling alcohol to minors; by marginalizing the WASP ethic that built this country they have set up the most amoral society one can imagine.


15 posted on 04/15/2015 8:24:17 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: GraceG

Progressives deal with evil by forbidding it.

It’s working great so far.


16 posted on 04/15/2015 8:42:23 AM PDT by thulldud (Is it "alter or abolish" time yet?)
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To: Logical me

It always amazes me how much punishment we humans willingly put up with before we rise up and rebel.

As a result, I don’t expect any rebellion in NY - hell just look at what Venezuelans put up with.


17 posted on 04/15/2015 8:45:54 AM PDT by aquila48
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To: thulldud

[ Progressives deal with evil by forbidding it.

It’s working great so far. ]

Because humans are perfectable by the state, everyone knows that!


18 posted on 04/15/2015 8:47:01 AM PDT by GraceG (Protect the Border from Illegal Aliens, Don't Protect Illegal Alien Boarders...)
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To: Kid Shelleen

WGAF? What did New York lawmakers expect?


19 posted on 04/15/2015 8:48:53 AM PDT by Rummyfan (Let us now try liberty)
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To: kearnyirish2

The “P” part of that is the big one.
There truly are only two worldviews, Christianity (based on Judaic roots), and Humanism, based on “you will be as gods”.

When you don’t adhere to the former, you’re walking down a dark road.


20 posted on 04/15/2015 8:50:50 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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