It?s been a bad week for trafficking in illegally cheap cigarettes.
A Maryland man pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to buying untaxed cigarettes wholesale for three years over the Internet and selling them out of his Baltimore-area stores.
The plea agreement by Enoch Moon, 39, of Elkridge, comes four days after state agents stopped a Brooklyn, N.Y., man in Worcester County and charged him with transporting more than $26,000 in untaxed cigarettes in his Dodge Durango, according to the State Comptroller?s Office.
Starting in 2001, Moon bought and then resold at his stores in Lexington Market and in Towson more than 60,000 cigarettes that hadn?t been taxed by the state, according to the U.S. Attorney?s Office.
Moon owned and ran the Ben Lex Tobacco Shop in Baltimore and the Discount Tobacco Outlet in Towson. He got the cigarettes over the Internet from wholesalers ? including many based on Indian reservations, the U.S. Attorney?s Office said.
Maryland lost about $427,000 in unpaid taxes on Moon?s contraband cigarettes, the U.S. Attorney?s Office said.
Moon faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
William R. McGowan, 39, was stopped Thursday afternoon on U.S. Route 113 in the Pocomoke area with 6,523 packs of cigarettes stowed in his car, the Comptroller?s Office said.
He?d allegedly tucked them away in toy boxes, diaper and baby formula containers, coolers, backpacks and storage chests, according to the Comptroller?s Office.
A photo provided by the Comptroller?s Office of the evidence allegedly seized from McGowan?s van shows stacks of cartons of a variety of brands, including Marlboros and Parliaments.
Each pack was missing a $1 tax stamp, said Kevin Kane, a spokesman for the Comptroller?s Office.
McGowan faces up to three years in prison and a $33,650 fine combined on felony and misdemeanor charges.
