OCEAN CITY -- Two local residents indicted by a New York grand jury in May for allegedly being the ringleader and enterprise treasurer of a vast cigarette smuggling and money laundering operation remain behind bars this week after preliminary hearings in King’s County New York Supreme Court on Monday.
In mid-May, federal officials concluded an investigation into a vast, multi-million dollar cigarette smuggling operation with raids on two locations in and around the Ocean City area including the West Ocean City homes of local residents and business owners Basel Ramadan, 42, who has been called the operation’s “ringleader,” and Samer Ramadan, 40, who is being called the “enterprise treasurer” of the operation. Also indicted were 14 other alleged co-conspirators, from transporters to distributors to resellers, who were also rounded up at locations all over the mid-Atlantic region on the same day in May.
At an initial bail hearing on June 4, Samer Ramadan was ordered to be held on a $15 million bond and was remanded to the custody of the New York Justice Department. Basel Ramadan also appeared at the same hearing on June 4, but the hearing was adjourned before his bail was set and he remained in custody without bond.
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After further research it is clear that taxes were indeed paid on the "illegal and untaxed cigs." The Ramadans never visited nor sold any smokes in NY. There is no connection to any terrorist activities despite the wild allegations made by NY authorities. Their crime seems to be that they are Muslim. But then, isn't the current administration entertaining known Islamist terror supporters in the White House? Where is the problem?
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