Feds break up scheme to smuggle cigarettes

Federal agents in Northern Virginia broke up a major cigarette-smuggling ring whose criminal activities extended into money laundering and identity theft, according to charging documents filed in federal courts.

During the course of the nearly two-year investigation, authorities said, conspirators in New York paid smugglers in Fairfax County more than $4 million for about 200,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes. During the nighttime raid, ATF agents served 15 arrest warrants in three states.