'Cigarette Strike Force' Coming For Your Illegal, Untaxed Cigarettes

Looks like it'll be riskier for your roommate's mother to sneak $6 packs of cigarettes from Charlie's Tobacco Outlet in her North Carolinian care packages—Cuomo's planning on cracking down on tobacco smugglers, and he's assembling a massive, 13-agency "Cigarette Strike Force" to accomplish this mission. The announcement of this task force follows news of a massive lawsuit lobbied against FedEx by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for reportedly delivering untaxed cigarettes in New York. Can we just get taxable marijuana already?

The Lucky Strike Force is comprised of scary federal agencies like the the Department of Homeland Security; the United States Custom and Border Protection and the FDA, along with more local folks like the New York City Sheriff’s Office. The whole shebang will be headed by former NYPD Detective Michael Spinosa, who will help this Band of Brothers "crack down on these illegal cigarette sales and capture those smugglers who seek to evade the law and rob the state of the revenue it is rightly owed," according to Cuomo.

The Post reports that 57 percent of the cigarettes smoked in NY have been brought into the state illegally. That's not surprising considering that a pack of cigarettes here runs about $15, the highest cost in any state. State taxes on cigarettes are $4.35 per pack, and there's an additional $1.50 per pack in the city.

And on Sunday, the AG's office filed a $235 million lawsuit against FedEx, arguing that the company has delivered over 400,000 untaxed cartons since 2006. The suit says the company was shipping untaxed tobacco goods from the Long Island's Shinnecock Smoke Shop, in addition to other unsavory cigarette companies; the city filed a similar suit against the company at the end of last year. A FedEx spokesman maintained that the delivery service "have and will continue to stop doing business with shippers identified as shipping prohibited tobacco products."

The penalty for possession of unstamped cigarettes is $600 per carton, the equivalent of about 41 packs of Marlboro 27s.