Tobacco.org

• Illegal sales worry cigarette tax foes 

Two dueling groups combined their proposed ballot measures Tuesday into one that would slap a $2.60 tax on a $4 pack of cigarettes to aid health care -- but officials said the 300 percent tax hike also would turn California into a gold mine for terrorists.

The California Hospital Association and anti-smoking groups, eyeing the November ballot, said the good far outweighs cigarette-smuggling concerns. It would provide nearly $2.3 billion annually for emergency rooms, children's health insurance and nursing education.

But in an acknowledgment of the cigarette-smuggling problem, the measure would also set aside $20 million a year for law enforcement efforts.

Federal and state officials already are waging an uphill battle against cigarette smuggling fromlow-tax states to high-tax states, where the cigarettes are sold at a discount.

Many of the illegal operations are now tied to terrorism. . . .

Radley Balko of the Cato Institute in the nation's capital said New York's black market "has aided a bevy of international terrorist organizations and nefarious elements, including the Russian mafia, Chinatown gangs, the Irish Republican Army, Hezbollah and al-Qaida."

In 2002, Hezbollah ringleader Mohammad Youssef Hammoud was arrested in Charlotte, N.C., for operating a cigarette-smuggling ring that bought low-tax cigarettes in North Carolina and sold them on the black market in high-tax Michigan, Balko said.

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Appeals court to rehear cigarette-smuggling case 

Confusion over a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Washington state's sentencing guidelines prompted the Richmond-based federal appeals court to schedule a rare August hearing on the ruling's impact in the five states it covers.

The hearing involves the case of a man convicted of helping terrorists via a North Carolina cigarette-smuggling ring.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that juries, not judges, must consider aggravating factors that can lengthen a defendant's sentence. Those factors must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt -- the same high standard used to determine guilt or innocence.

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• Cigarette smuggler who sent money to Lebanese group wants new sentence 

Lawyers for a North Carolina cigarette smuggler who sent money to a militant Lebanese group urged a federal appeals court to vacate his 155-year prison sentence in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down one state's sentencing guidelines.

Federal sentencing guidelines also are unconstitutional under the Blakely v. Washington ruling issued in June, attorneys for Mohamad Hammoud told the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A lawyer for the government suggested the Richmond-based appeals court await guidance from the Supreme Court, which agreed Monday to settle the issue in two cases suggested by the Bush administration. Justice Department attorney Demetra Lambros said the high court could rule as early as mid-October.

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• Appeals court to rehear cigarette-smuggling case / Sentencing guidelines at issue 

Confusion over a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Washington state's sentencing guidelines prompted the Richmond-based federal appeals court to schedule a rare August hearing on the ruling's impact in the five states it covers.

The hearing involves the case of a man convicted of helping terrorists via a North Carolina cigarette-smuggling ring.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that juries, not judges, must consider aggravating factors that can lengthen a defendant's sentence. . . .

The appeals court in Richmond will consider the impact of Blakely in the case of Mohamad Hammoud, who was sentenced to 155 years in prison after being the first person convicted under a federal law that bars aid to terrorist groups. Hammoud led a North Carolina cigarette-smuggling ring that funneled money to the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah.

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Man sentenced to 70 months in prison for cigarette smuggling 

A Dearborn man convicted of taking part in a multistate cigarette-smuggling ring that included North Carolina was sentenced Thursday to 70 months in prison without the possibility of parole, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins said.

Elias Mohamad Akhdar, 31, pleaded guilty in July to a charge of conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. He could have received up to 78 months in prison for the crime under federal sentencing guidelines.

Akhdar also was ordered to repay $2,062,500 in lost tax revenue to the state of Michigan, Collins said in a written statement.

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• Reservation cigarette smugglers face prison terms 

Two women from the Seneca Nation of Indians' Cattaraugus reservation face prison terms at sentencing next month for their roles in a cigarette-smuggling ring.

One co-defendant admitted sending part of his profits to Hezbollah, the Islamic militant group blamed for the 1983 suicide bombing that killed 241 U.S. Marines and sailors in Beirut, Lebanon.

Carole Thompson Gordon, 58, was accused of heading the New York-based operations of the Cattaraugus group. She hired others from the reservation to drive vans loaded with untaxed cigarettes to Michigan for resale at convenience stores, federal agents said.

At sentencing Dec. 11 in federal court in Detroit, Gordon faces 33 months in prison after admitting her role in the conspiracy, prosecutors told The Buffalo News. Brady Jo Bowman, 24, who is Gordon's granddaughter, is facing 18 months.

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orphans of martyrs program
Hassan Moussa Makki has admitted sending more than $2,000 of his cigarettte-smuggling profits to Hezbollah, for the above program.

Terrorists Blaze a New Money Trail 

But most terrorism financiers do the opposite of the drug barons. Instead of laundering their money, they keep it away from institutions that create a paper trail. They use criminal activities, like cigarette smuggling, credit card fraud and check forgery, to raise cash, then ship the money overseas or have a courier deliver it. Thus, a new black market has been created, and the goal is to keep the money invisible, not by washing it, but by hiding it. . . .

In Charlotte, N.C., last year, members of a Hezbollah cell were convicted of racketeering in a cigarette smuggling scam. Cigarettes purchased without paying state tax in North Carolina were trucked to Detroit, where they were resold, for cash. The cash was then sent to Lebanon, by courier or by mail. A photo introduced as evidence at the criminal trial showed several cell members sitting at a table overflowing with $20 and $100 bills.

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• Man pleads guilty to providing support to Hezbollah 

DETROIT - A man who the government says funneled contraband profits from cigarette trafficking to the Islamic-militant group Hezbollah pleaded guilty Thursday to providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Hassan M. Makki, 41, of Dearborn, also pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge, according to a plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court. . .

Makki acknowledged providing more than $2,000 to Hezbollah after it had been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. . . .

Between 1997 and 1999, Makki acknowledged being involved in trafficking between $36,000 and $72,000 worth of cigarettes per month. The plan involved buying low-tax cigarettes in North Carolina, then reselling them at a profit in Michigan, where tobacco taxes are higher.

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The money was intended to support Hezbollah's orphans and martyrs program to benefit the families of those killed in Hezbollah operations or by Hezbollah's enemies.
U.S. attorney's office in Detroit, on Hassan M. Makki's North Carolina-to-Michigan cigarette trafficking operation.

• Cigarette smuggler helps federal agents follow money trail to Islamic group Hezbollah 

The trap that snared Haissam Nashar as he changed planes at Lambert Field was intended to stop drug runners.

As it turned out, the nervous, sweating traveler who attracted police attention three years ago had no narcotics; the contraband in his luggage was instead almost $700,000 worth of cigarette tax stamps that police presumed were counterfeit.

But more significantly, Nashar carried information that helped federal agents break up a pipeline that carried thousands of dollars from unwitting Michigan smokers to the coffers of Hezbollah, the Islamic terrorist group blamed for, among other things, killing 241 U.S. Marines and sailors in a bombing in Beirut in 1983.

The conclusion of the unheralded St. Louis connection will come Dec. 12 when U.S. District Judge Charles Shaw is scheduled to sentence Nashar on his guilty plea to interstate transportation of the phony tax stamps. Sentencing has been delayed several times, in part out of unspecified concerns about security.

The story began Oct. 5, 1999, when Nashar, 36, a native of Lebanon who lives in North Carolina, was flying from Charlotte to Los Angeles by way of St. Louis.

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• St. Louis arrest leads police to alleged Hezbollah fundraising ring 

A man who caught the attention of drug task force officers at Lambert Airport three years ago faces sentencing next month after providing information that authorities say helped cut off a funding pipeline for the Hezbollah terrorist group.

Haissam Nashar, 36, a native of Lebanon who lives in North Carolina, was running fraudulent cigarette tax stamps. Under interrogation, he gave police the names of other people of Lebanese heritage who he said were smuggling cigarette stamps to raise money for Hezbollah.

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Terrorists also getting in on act 

Federal and local authorities are investigating links between the booming black market in cigarettes and terrorist organizations after 26 North Carolina men were convicted this summer of funneling the profits from bootleg smokes to the radical Muslim organization Hezbollah.

The men, convicted of selling $7 million worth of untaxed cigarettes to dealers in Michigan and elsewhere, were members of a Hezbollah procurement cell, plotting to buy advanced aircraft analysis and design software, blasting equipment, ultrasonic dog repellents, munitions and other military hardware, authorities said.

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Muslim will get a new lawyer / Defendant complained first one was Jewish 

Mohamad Hammoud, arrested in connection with the government's investigation into cigarette smuggling and possible terrorist ties, will get a new attorney after complaining that the first one appointed to him is Jewish.

Charlotte lawyer Leonard G. Kornberg withdrew from Hammoud's case last month. Kornberg asked a federal judge to let him step down after Hammoud, a Muslim from Lebanon, wrote a letter saying he didn't think the lawyer would work for his best interest.

"My attorney and I have a conflict of interest, due to the different of religion believe, and not being truthful with me," Hammoud, 27, wrote in the letter to U.S. Magistrate Judge Brent McKnight. "I would ask you please, if you can appoint another lawyer to represent me (not Jewish please)."

Hammoud was one of 18 people indicted this past summer in connection with an alleged scheme to smuggle cigarettes from North Carolina to Michigan, launder money and get around immigration laws through phony marriages.

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3 plead guilty to violations of immigration law 

Guilty pleas were entered by Fatme Mohamad Harb, 20; Tonia Yvonne Moore, 27; and Terri Jeanne Pish, 33, all of Charlotte. All three women appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Horn, saying little except to acknowledge that they willingly entered their respective pleas.

According to the indictment, some of the defendants in the case used sham marriages to circumvent immigration laws, then set up a smuggling business in Charlotte to buy cases of cigarettes in North Carolina, which has a low cigarette tax, and sell them at a profit in high-tax Michigan.

This month, Samir Mohamad Ali Debk, 25, also pleaded guilty to immigration law violations. None of the four suspects who have pleaded guilty so far were charged with cigarette smuggling.

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Defendant in Hezbollah case pleads guilty to immigration charges 

One of 18 suspects charged in a cigarette-smuggling ring that allegedly was raising money for the Islamic militant group Hezbollah has pleaded guilty to violations of immigration law.

Samir Mohamad Ali Debk, 25, pleaded guilty Thursday to five violations. He was not charged with cigarette smuggling.

The immigration crimes are punishable by up to 40 years in prison. A sentencing date has not been set.

"He decided to plead guilty because it'll minimize the time he spends in custody," said defense attorney Haakon Thorsen. "The charges against him are not that serious."

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17 plead innocent in cigarette-smuggling case 

All but one of 18 people accused of participating in a cigarette-smuggling ring that raised money for the Islamic militant group Hezbollah pleaded innocent to all charges in federal court Friday.

Only four of the defendants, including alleged ring leader Mohamad Youssef Hammoud, actually stood before U.S. Magistrate Judge Brent McKnight to enter the plea and request a jury trial.

The only other defendant to appear in court waived his arraignment, which is tantamount to an innocent plea. And 12 other defendants who were not in court had filed waivers before Friday's hearing.

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