Hempstead pair among 8 charged in multistate cigarette smuggling ring, says DA

Two Hempstead women along with six people from Brooklyn, Queens and Virginia were charged with running a multimillion dollar interstate cigarette smuggling ring, the Queens district attorney's office said Wednesday.

The defendants transported tens of thousands of cartons of cigarettes, purchased in Virginia, to New York, where they were resold with counterfeit tax stamps, prosecutors said, avoiding nearly $1 million in state taxes. 

"The defendants in this case are modern-day bootleggers who allegedly peddled untaxed cigarettes to enrich themselves," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. "This smuggling ring raked in millions of dollars at the expense of New Yorkers."

The eight defendants were arraigned Tuesday in Kew Gardens and charged with second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, fourth-degree conspiracy, and a cigarette and tobacco products tax law felony. They were released them on their own recognizance and are due back in court on Nov. 27. If convicted, each faces between 8 and 30 years in prison.

Prosecutors identified the suspects as Lisa Penda, 33, and Beatrice Villafane, 46, both of Hempstead; Ahmad Abualrub, 61, and his son Hassan Abualrub, 18, both of Brooklyn; Nicholas Galafano, 56, and his sons, Yaseen Galafano, 22, and Musa Galafano, 25, all of Little Neck, Queens; and Nasir Jafri, 43, of Chantilly, Virginia. 

The Galafanos, Jafri, Penda and Villafane were ordered to retain counsel while attorneys for the Abualrubs declined to comment.

Prosecutors said the Galafanos ran the trafficking business out their home on 248th Street in Little Neck.

Jafri purchased more than 37,000 cartons of cigarettes from stores in Maryland and Virginia in 2018 and drove them to New York, where they were sold to Nicholas Galafano, investigators said. Ahmad and Hassan Abualrub then sold the cigarettes to customers in Brooklyn and Queens, according to charging documents.

Villafane, who ran multiple businesses with Nicholas Galafano, laundered cash from the sale of the untaxed cigarettes, investigators said. Nearly $1 million was in these accounts, prosecutors said.

Penda removed the out-of-state tax stamps from the untaxed cigarettes and affixed counterfeit New York State tax stamps, documents show.

Authorities executed a search warrant Monday at three locations and seized nearly 6,300 cartons of untaxed cigarettes and $2.3 million in illegal proceeds, officials said. At Villafane’s home on Meadowbrook Road, police recovered more than 3,500 cartons of  cigarettes, nearly 100,000 counterfeit tax stamps, paraphernalia used to remove and affix stamps, counting machines and more than $200,000 in cash, documents show.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.