Seneca Nation officials think pending legislation before the U.S. Senate will mean the loss of 1,000 jobs, and they want to make sure everyone knows that. Last week, the Nation unveiled an electronic billboard along the eastbound I-190 warning Western New Yorkers of ramifications of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act. “The PACT Act is being portrayed as a tool to fight cigarette smuggling. In reality, it will kill legitimate, treaty ... Jump to full article >>

WHITE PLAINS - 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&# ... Jump to full article >>

His gloved hands thick with coal dust, the customs guard pulls out a carton of Classics cigarettes and drops it to the floor. Reaching into the coal scuttle, another pack follows and another, until the floor of the carriage is soon a mess of coal and smuggled cigarettes. The guard and his colleagues are searching the train looking for contraband goods, unscrewing ceiling boards and walls, removing curtain rails and searching the coal scuttles a ... Jump to full article >>

Cigarette smuggling is a lucrative, low-risk business that is sometimes used to help fund terrorist organizations around the world, according to a new report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The report, “Tobacco Underground,” charts the paths of smugglers working for the Taliban, Hezbollah, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA) and others. David Kaplan, editorial d ... Jump to full article >>