Baldwin man among 17 accused of trafficking 18M untaxed cigarettes, DA says

Seventeen people accused of trafficking untaxed cigarettes, including a Baldwin man, were charged with enterprise corruption, criminal tax fraud and other charges in a 242-count indictment announced Wednesday by New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood.

Underwood said Ahmed Alsayedi, 43, of Baldwin, and the other defendants traveled to low-tax states such as Virginia and North Carolina to purchase cartons of cigarettes, which they then illegally transported to New York City and Nassau and Westchester counties.

The investigation into the illicit smoke ring was dubbed “Operation Big Wheels” because the defendants allegedly used modified Ford F-350 and F-150 pickup trucks to transport the cigarettes.

“The defendants ran a massive criminal enterprise that trafficked over 18 million untaxed cigarettes into New York, cheating New Yorkers out of over $3 million in taxes,” Underwood said. “We have zero tolerance for those who try to game the system and cheat New Yorkers — and we won’t hesitate to hold them accountable.”

The indictment charged Alsayedi and the other 16 defendants with enterprise corruption, first-degree criminal tax fraud and money laundering in the second degree. The maximum sentence for each of those charges is 25 years in prison.

The defendants were also charged with conspiracy and possession or transport for the purpose of sale of 30,000 or more unstamped cigarettes. The alleged ringleader, Mohammed Alsaidi, 36, of Queens, is facing 165 separate charges, including enterprise corruption, criminal tax fraud, money laundering and related tax crimes.

Sixteen of the defendants have been arraigned in Queens County Supreme Court, authorities said. The seventeenth defendant is to be arraigned next month. It was not known if they had retained legal counsel.

Most of the defendants live in Queens or the Bronx.

Operation Big Wheels was led by the attorney general’s Organized Crime Task Force and the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau.