New York Attor­ney Gen­eral Eric Schnei­der­man announc­ing the indictment

Ear­lier this week, author­i­ties in New York announced the indict­ment of 16 men accused of smug­gling more than $55 mil­lion worth of cig­a­rettes from Vir­ginia to New York.  Fif­teen of the men are in cus­tody while one is at large, believed to be in Jor­dan.  One of the accused is also believed to have sold the gun used in the 1994 mur­der of Ari Hal­ber­stam in Brooklyn.

Sev­eral of the men in the smug­gling ring are report­edly sus­pected of hav­ing ties to Hamas and other mil­i­tant groups.  Although author­i­ties do not yet know where the rev­enue was directed, they noted that, in the past such oper­a­tions have been used to finance Hamas and Hezbol­lah.

While fundrais­ing for ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tions is not lim­ited to cig­a­rette smug­gling, there have been sev­eral cases within the United States in recent years, including:

• A group of approx­i­mately 20 men ran a crim­i­nal enter­prise in Dear­born, Michi­gan, traf­fick­ing in con­tra­band cig­a­rettes, cig­a­rette papers and Via­gra, as well as stolen infant for­mula and toi­let paper.  Pros­e­cu­tors con­tend that the ring diverted some of the funds to Hezbol­lah.  Nat­u­ral­ized U.S. cit­i­zen Karim Has­san Nasser pleaded guilty to rack­e­teer­ing charges in Sep­tem­ber 2006, as did Theodore Schenk of Miami Beach, Florida and Imad Hamadeh of Dear­born Heights.
• Dear­born res­i­dent Elias Mohamad Akhdar was sen­tenced in Jan­u­ary 2004 to nearly six years in prison for his role in a cigarette-smuggling ring designed to finance Hezbol­lah. Another Dear­born res­i­dent, Has­san M. Makki, received a sen­tence of nearly five years in prison in con­nec­tion with the scheme.
• Car­ole Gor­don and her grand­daugh­ter Brandy Jo Bow­man were among eleven peo­ple charged in Jan­u­ary 2003 for their involve­ment in a cig­a­rette smug­gling ring that fun­neled its pro­ceeds to Hezbol­lah.   Both Gor­don and Bow­man pleaded guilty to rack­e­teer­ing charges.
• Mohamad Ham­moud was charged in March 2001 for rais­ing funds and con­spir­ing to pro­vide “a vari­ety of items that Hizbal­lah [sic] would use to engage in vio­lent attacks and to film such attacks for use in Hizbal­lah [sic] pro­pa­ganda efforts,” accord­ing to court doc­u­ments.  Ham­moud allegedly pro­cured dual-use tech­nolo­gies for Hezbol­lah, includ­ing gog­gles, global posi­tion­ing sys­tems, stun guns, naval equip­ment, nitro­gen cut­ters and laser range find­ers.  Ham­moud and his brother, Chawki, were con­victed the fol­low­ing year of pro­vid­ing mate­r­ial sup­port to Hezbol­lah through their cigarette-smuggling ring that know­ingly directed money to the ter­ror­ist organization.
• At least three nat­u­ral­ized U.S. cit­i­zens – Said Mohamad Harb, Bassem Youssef Ham­moud and Hus­sein Chahrour – and U.S. cit­i­zen Angela Geor­gia Tsioumas are among a group of nine indi­vid­u­als who bought cig­a­rettes in North Car­olina, shipped them to Michi­gan and sold them at a price lower than the tax-inflated Michi­gan price.  From 1995 to 2000, the scheme gen­er­ated over $7 mil­lion used to pro­cure dual-use tech­nolo­gies for Hezbol­lah.  Items were report­edly pur­chased for Hezbol­lah in both the U.S. and Canada, includ­ing gog­gles, global posi­tion­ing sys­tems, stun guns, naval equip­ment, nitro­gen cut­ters and laser range find­ers.  Harb pleaded guilty to pro­vid­ing mate­r­ial sup­port for ter­ror­ists and rack­e­teer­ing charges.  Tisoumas  pleaded guilty to rack­e­teer­ing and money laun­der­ing charges.   Chahrour pleaded guilty to rack­e­teer­ing charges.  Bas­sam Youssef Ham­moud pleaded guilty to traf­fick­ing in con­tra­band cigarettes.

Tags: angela georgie tsioumas, ari halberstam, arrest, bassem youssef hammoud, carole gordon, cigarette, dearborn, elias mohamad akhdar, hamas, hassan makki, hezbollah, hussein chahrour, karim hassan nasser, mighigan, mohamad hammoud, said mohamad harb, scam, smuggling, terrorism, theodore schenk, trafficking