3K Foreign Contraband Cigarettes Seized, Destroyed By USPS In NY, Other States: Officials

Around 3,000 packages of foreign contraband cigarettes bound for Connecticut, New York, and other states have been found and destroyed by the US Postal Service since the beginning of the year, officials said.

Around 3,000 illegally-mailed packages of cigarettes bound for Connecticut, New York, and other states have been seized and destroyed by the USPS since the beginning of 2023.
Photo Credit: *Pixabay/Gerd Altmann*

Ben Crnic

04/09/2023 12:30 p.m.

According to Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, the seizures were a result of a settlement between the USPS and several states in August 2022 that forced the Postal Service to destroy untaxed foreign cigarettes instead of returning the illegally-mailed packages back to the sender.

Of the 3,000 cigarette packages destroyed since the beginning of 2023, 44 had been heading to addresses in Connecticut, Tong announced on Thursday, April 6.

Many of the 3,000 packages, which contained a total of 10,000 individual cartons of cigarettes, were shipped from China, Israel, and Russia and sent to addresses throughout Connecticut, New York, and other states such as California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania that had been involved in the settlement with the USPS, according to Tong.

Nearly 8,000 cartons arrived in the country through the international postal facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York.

As a result of the settlement, the USPS is required to seize and destroy illegally-mailed cigarette packages, report the sender and recipient information to law enforcement, and appoint a designated manager to oversee the organization's compliance with these rules.

"We took action to force USPS to do its job to stop the flow of foreign contraband cigarettes into Connecticut and the United States," Tong said of the settlement, adding, "These early reports show our settlement provisions are working, resulting in the detection and destruction of thousands of smuggled cigarettes."

He also said that allowing contraband cigarettes to be mailed can cost states hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost tax revenue and hinder efforts to prevent smoking.

Before the settlement was reached, it was alleged that the USPS had transported and delivered untaxed foreign cigarettes to households across the US for over a decade, which violated federal law.

"We will continue to work alongside our partner states and the City of New York to closely monitor this settlement and ensure this important enforcement effort remains on the right track," Tong said.

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