OC cigarette smuggler sentenced in New York

Basel Ramadan, the leader of an untaxed cigarette smuggling ring, was sentenced to 4-12 years behind bars on Wednesday and must forfeit $1.2 million dollars.

Basel and his brother Samir helped distribute millions of cartons of illegally imported cigarettes from Virginia to New York.

The brothers were taken into custody back in 2013 after police raided their West Ocean City home.

Basel was found guilty on 198 counts, including enterprise corruption, money laundering, and tax crimes.

According to the New York Attorney General’s Office, the brothers obtained the cigarettes from a Virginia wholesaler before stashing them in a storage facility in Delaware.

The New York AG’s Office says that several times a week, a Brooklyn man, Adel Abuzahrieh, would hand over tens of thousands of dollars to the Ramadan brothers in Delaware, in exchange for the cigarettes.

The brothers netted over $10-million in profit.

Samir was sentenced last year to a maximum of six-years in prison, but will have to serve two years in prison before being eligible for parole.

Abuzahrieh, the alleged middle man in Brooklyn, is awaiting trial.