New Jersey's ‘Tobacco Road’: Cops Make Cigarette Counterfeiting Bust

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Law enforcement officials have dubbed it “Tobacco Road.” A smuggler’s route that runs from the Carolinas to Maine, the stretch of Interstate 195 is used to generate large profits for those who roll the dice and try to transport cigarettes from low-tax states such as Virginia and re-sell them in high-tax states such as New Jersey.

The reward for those who succeed is handsome. According to the Newark Department of Public Safety (NDPS), the New Jersey tax on a pack of cigarettes is $2.70 while the tax in Virginia is just 30 cents per pack.

On Wednesday, authorities claimed that while investigating an alleged carjacking, Newark police discovered and busted a significant waystation on the New Jersey leg of Tobacco Road.

According to the NDPS, the investigation began around 9:30 p.m., when Newark police responded to a report of shots fired in the area of Highland and Delavan avenues. A male witness reportedly told officers that he fled from the scene of a carjacking in the area, and that one of the three suspects shot at him with a handgun.

While conducting their investigation, the detectives determined that the carjacking victim - Merysol Mendez-Reyes, 51, of Newark - was also a suspect in a counterfeit operation.

NDPS officials didn’t disclose how the detectives connected Mendez-Reyes to the alleged scheme. However, as a result of their investigation, special agents from the New Jersey Treasury Department’s Office of Criminal Investigation soon arrived on the scene and the Essex County Superior Court issued a search warrant for a premises in the area.

After searching the building, authorities discovered and seized a plethora of goods allegedly used to smuggle cigarettes through New Jersey, New York and Virginia:

• 75,736 counterfeit New Jersey cigarette tax stamps valued at $204,487
• 8,445 New York State / New York City counterfeit tax stamps
• 402 cartons of cigarettes bearing Virginia cigarette tax stamps or no tax stamps, as well as 123 cartons of cigarettes bearing counterfeit New Jersey cigarette tax stamps (total value of $47,101)
• “Tools and paraphernalia known to be used to remove and affix cigarette tax stamps”
• “Various financial and other records and ledgers”
• $18,722 in cash
• Two vehicles

Investigators from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and Special Agents from the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations aided in the recovery and processing of evidence at the scene.

Authorities issued Mendez-Reyes criminal charges for possession and distribution of the counterfeit stamps and contraband cigarettes.

A civil penalty of $1,000 per carton of cigarettes possessed may also be imposed in addition to any criminal penalties resulting from a conviction, authorities said.

“Some traffickers remove the origin state tax stamp and replace it with a counterfeit tax stamp of the state where they intend to re-sell the cigarettes,” the NDPS stated in a Monday news release. “This makes detection by the average individual unlikely.”

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