Free Republic

New York officials say they have busted a multi-million dollar cigarette smuggling ring. Officials allege that three of the 16 Palestinian immigrants charged had links to known terrorists. The state's attorney general said investigators had recovered only "a fraction" of the proceeds from sales of more than a million untaxed cartons. The amount of money involved remains unclear, but records show the suspects deposited at least $55m (£36m). The scheme cost the state an estimated $80m in tax revenue, said officials in a press conference on Thursday. The alleged ringleaders, brothers Basel and Samir Ramadan, were arrested on Wednesday in...

NEWARK - Nearly four dozen leaders and associates of an international criminal enterprise have been charged in six indictments - forty-three of them were arrested over the weekend in New Jersey and other states - with running a smuggling ring that brought large quantities of counterfeit cigarettes, millions of dollars in high-quality counterfeit U.S. currency and drugs into the United States through Port Newark and other domestic ports, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced. The indictments, including three racketeering indictments, charge 57 individuals. Of those, several were arrested beginning on Friday as they arrived in Atlantic City to attend a...

After traveling across the ocean for three months, 22 Asian immigrants were detained Friday by local police shortly after coming ashore in Rincon. Aguadilla police spokesman Juan Bautista Ayala said the 17 men and five women were taken into custody around 2 a.m. Friday after agents Wilfredo Vega and Jose Ventura spotted them while patrolling the area. Bautista Ayala said the detainees had apparently set out aboard a vessel from the Dominican Republic. The immigrants remained together after coming ashore and did not resist arrest. A Chinese businessman from Rincon was asked to serve as interpreter, Ayala said, and although...