Editor’s Note: ATF focuses its limited tobacco enforcement resources on cases that have “a nexus to violent crime,” see here.
From: MyRecordJournal.com
By Andrew Ragali Record-Journal staff
MERIDEN — After a four-month investigation, the state Department of Revenue Services seized over $120,000 and more than two truckloads of tobacco Tuesday from a Meriden distributor. Three men were charged with selling untaxed tobacco, and more arrests are expected as the investigation continues, according to DRS Commissioner Kevin Sullivan.
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A DRS investigative unit formed in January led the investigation into A&R Wholesale. Meriden and Middletown police were involved, along with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Large-scale tobacco schemes are sometimes linked to international terrorism as a way to raise money for terrorist organizations, though no such link has been made in this case, Sullivan said.
