Jump to full article: New York Journal News, 2009-09-18
Author: Rebecca Baker
Intro: A Yonkers man is among 21 cigarette-smuggling suspects charged with evading the state tobacco tax in a sting operation that also netted a cache of homemade bombs and weapons inside Cortlandt man's home.
The cigarette bust, which cost the state $21 million in lost taxes, was the largest of its kind in the United States, a state official said at a news conference this afternoon at the Westchester County District Attorney's Office.
"There will be more arrests, I'm confident," said William Comiskey, the deputy commissoner of taxation and finance. "This is just one type of activity they're involved in."
Ibrahim Althnaibat, 49, of Willow Street in Yonkers was one of the alleged "middle men" arrested in the sting, joining 20 others from the five boroughs of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
The sting also led to Thursday's arrest of 52-year-old Gary Burstell of Cortlandt, where police said they found homemade bombs, 14 rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition and $500 worth of fireworks during a raid of his home. . . .
They bought cartons of cigarettes straight from the manufacturers - mostly Newport and Marlboro - and started selling them out of a Yonkers garage.
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