A cigarette smuggler was arrested with a vanload of untaxed cigarettes on the Southern State Parkway after a state trooper made a routine traffic stop, police said Thursday.Juan Urena, 51, of Brooklyn, was driving a white Ford van west on the parkway near Exit 23, at Meadowbrook Road, at around 9 p.m. Wednesday when the trooper stopped him for having the commercial vehicle on the parkway, state police said. The van was loaded with 800 cartons of cigarettes, police said. Urena was charged with evading cigarette tax; and possessing and transporting unstamped cigarettes, both felonies. . . .When the trooper pulled off the tarp he saw boxes wrapped in black garbage bags, police said. And when he opened a bag he saw a Newport cigarette label, prompting a search that uncovered hundreds of cartons, police said.Still, I'm disappointed that, back in June, President Barack Obama robbed our nation's youth of this method of extinguishing brain cells by signing the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which, among other things, bans flavored cigarettes like cloves and bidis.Jason Ballou, co-owner of Main Street Tobacco at 4307 Main, has been in the cig-selling business for 14 years. He says the ban will eliminate 50 of his store's cigarette varieties, and unless he tells them, most of his customers have no idea what's coming. As of September 22, Ballou says, "Cloves of ed hardy any kind become illegal. Bidis will be, as well. And then the different flavored cigarettes, the vanillas and cherries that are really popular, will all be illegal. Same with herbal cigarettes, which contain no tobacco at all, no nicotine."So did the local tobacco retailers protest? "Really there's nothing we can do," Ballou says. "Most cigarette manufacturers opposed it, with the exception of Philip Morris, who supported the law. It's going to eliminate a quarter of [Philip Morris'] competition, so they'll definitely see increases in their sales." Meanwhile, clove-lovers are stocking up. "We're cheap nba jerseys getting people that come in and buy four, five, six cartons" of their favorite brands, Ballou says. "Just like when the cigarette tax happened, as shortages get worse and worse, the manufacturers will increase the price on the existing stock." After September 22, customers can still possess the products, though they're illegal to sell. Ordering them from other countries or bringing them from overseas will be illegal, too.On the upside, Ballou says, the ban doesn't affect wow gold cigars, and clove-flavored varieties are being made now. "Essentially, they're the size of 100-type cigarettes, with a filter, but it's cigar tobacco instead of cigarette tobacco," Ballou says. "They're cheaper per cigar than the cigarettes were, because they are taxed at the cheaper cigar rate. So it's actually become cheaper to smoke cloves." Ballou notes the irony that the federal government hoped its flavored tobacco ban would protect kids, and yet the most popular cigarette flavor in the world -- menthol Newport Cigarettes -- remains on the shelves. Besides, he says, "Cigar and pipe tobacco has always been flavored and kids certainly aren't swarming to try those." Maybe the release of the new Sherlock Holmes movie will change that? |