Leader of cigarette smuggling ring faces up to 30 years

PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Cook

The reputed leader of a massive East Coast cigarette smuggling operation that flooded the Capital Region and elsewhere with millions of untaxed and illegal cigarettes faces up to 30 years in prison, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.

Basel Ramadan, 44, of Maryland, was convicted this week in a Brooklyn court on a total of 198 counts that included enterprise corruption, money laundering and tax crimes.

Law enforcement agencies broke up Ramadan’s organization two years ago, uncovering $55 million in illegal cigarette sales, as well as 65,000 forged tax stamps and 20,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes.

The operation distributed the cigarettes mainly around the New York City area. Ramadan was one of 16 charged. Authorities accused one of the others, Mohannad Seif, 39, of Brooklyn, with distributing untaxed cigarettes to stores in Albany and Schenectady counties.

Ramadan faces up to 81⁄3 to 25 years in state prison on the enterprise corruption conviction and up to 30 years overall, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Seif is one of six defendants who previously pleaded guilty, officials said. He received probation for his role.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman noted that Ramadan cheated the state out of tens of millions in tax revenue.

“Not only did this enterprise put law-abiding businesses in New York at a competitive disadvantage, but it increased the possibility of violence that comes with this type of smuggling operation,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “I am deeply gratified that justice has been served.”

The May 2013 arrests came as the result of a year-long investigation by the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force and the New York Police Department.

Authorities determined through electronic and physical surveillance, as well as analysis of financial records that Ramadan and his brother Samir Ramadan obtained cigarettes from a wholesaler, Cooper Booth Wholesale, Inc., in Virginia, and stored them in Delaware. Another co-conspirator then frequently traveled to Delaware with tens of thousands of dollars in cash to purchase the cigarettes from the Ramadans for distribution.

Samir Ramadan, 40, pleaded guilty last year to enterprise corruption and is serving up to six years in state prison.