A Bayside man faces felony tax charges for allegedly shipping hundreds of cartons of untaxed cigarettes through the U.S. Postal Service to a Long Island nail salon.
Jeong Min Park, 41, of 224th Street was arrested for allegedly attempting to evade the cigarette tax and possessing more than 200 cartons of illegal cigarettes.
“Attempts to sidestep cigarette taxes put honest business owners at a competitive disadvantage, tilting the balance in favor of those willing to break the law,” said state Executive Deputy Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Andrew Morris. “We’ll continue to work with all levels of law enforcement, including our partners on the national and local levels, to ensure these crimes don’t go unpunished.”
According to charges, Park allegedly had the cigarettes shipped through the U.S. Postal Service to a nail salon located at 2 Rockaway Ave. in Valley Stream. Investigators allegedly saw Park loading the packages into a vehicle and then drive away.
A mobile surveillance team followed Park until he was pulled over by Nassau County District Attorney investigators, who had search warrant for his car. The search allegedly uncovered 208 cartons of the untaxed cigarettes.
“This is not only illegally selling of cigarettes untaxed to make a larger profit, but they misrepresented the goods on the manifest in order to smuggle it into the U.S.,” said Angel M. Melendez, Special Agent in Charge of HSI-NY. “We continue to leverage our partnerships with other law enforcement agencies to investigate tax and customs fraud cases.”
