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Staten Island Man Busted With More Than 2,500 Cartons of Untaxed Cigarettes

By Nicholas Rizzi | November 7, 2014 2:51pm | Updated on November 10, 2014 8:48am
 Michael Zekry, 67, was arrested after police found him smuggling more than 2,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes from Virginia to Staten Island.
Michael Zekry, 67, was arrested after police found him smuggling more than 2,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes from Virginia to Staten Island.
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Staten Island District Attorney's Office

NEW SPRINGVILLE — A Staten Island man smuggled more than 2,500 cartons of untaxed cigarettes from Virginia to Staten Island, prosecutors said.

Michael Zekry, 67, was stopped while driving a white Ford Econoline van in New Springville after a seven-month investigation. Police found 2,035 untaxed cigarettes inside the car and another 551 cartons inside his Field Street apartment, Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan announced.

When he was arrested, Zekry told officers that they "got a good one," according to court papers.

"I go to Virginia every ten weeks. I make between $5,000 to $7,000 on a load," Zekry told police. "I'm out of business now."

Zekry sold the cartons for between $40 to $50 to clients in Brooklyn and Staten Island and did drop offs at grocery stores and nail salons, Donovan said.

"Michael Zekry was a big-time cigarette smuggler who sold his contraband to clients across Staten Island, from the North Shore to the South Shore," Donovan said in a statement.

"He would do residential drop-offs as well as deliver to grocery stores and nail salons. Months of dedicated police work by my NYPD Detective Squad has put him out of business and taken more than a half million illegal cigarettes off the streets."

Zekry was charged with tax fraud at his Wednesday arraignment and faces up to four years in prison if convicted, Donovan said.

He was released on $10,000 bail.