MD Comptroller: Cigarette Smuggling More Lucrative Than Cocaine - WMDT 47 News - Delmarva's Choice

SALISBURY, Md. - More than a 125,000 packs of illegal cigarettes are now off the streets.    

Over the past two weeks, cigarette busts have been made in Wicomico and Somerset Counties, including Friday's bust where the retail value of the cigarettes was over $12,000and the tax loss to the state of Maryland was nearly $4,000.  The Maryland Comptroller tells WMDT that cigarette smuggling is more lucrative than smuggling cocaine and heroin.

"It used to be a real mom and pop operation to smuggle contraband cigarettes," said Peter Franchot, Comptroller of Maryland.  "Now, what we're finding is it's becoming something that organized crime is interested in because the profits are so high and penalties are so small."    

In the past three months, the Comptroller tells WMDT that the state has lost over $255,000 in tax revenue.  The next step: to take this matter to legislature in January to increase penalties.