Thousands of cigarettes confiscated from Irwin Ave. home

Law enforcement officials have arrested two Yonkers men they say used 3175 Irwin Ave. as a “stash house” for thousands of untaxed cigarettes and counterfeit tobacco tax stamps. 

Nabilh Alghazali, 52, and Mohamed Elgazali, 42, were arrested on May 18, for allegedly attempting to resell 30,000 cigarettes without paying the $6.46-a-pack tax and using counterfeit tax stamps to evade more than $10,000 in tobacco taxes during the past year, law enforcement officials said. 

The raid on the Irwin Avenue home yielded 1,454 untaxed cartons — which contain ten packs of cigarettes apiece — and 90,240 counterfeit tax stamps, according to court documents.  

Officers said they entered to the two-story, one-family brick house with a contraband search warrant and arrested Mr. Alghazali inside the Kingsbridge home at approximately 9:15 a.m. They charged him with four felonies and four misdemeanors. 

They then stopped Mr. Elgazali in a blue 2001 Lincoln Town Car at about 1:30 p.m. and found 20 cartons of cigarettes from Virginia in the trunk, according to court documents. 

Mr. Elgazali, who according to court documents is the Irwin Avenue home’s leaseholder, faces six felonies and nine misdemeanor charges for the stash and for selling cartons with counterfeit stamps to the Maswara Deli at 3613 Kingsbridge Ave. on March 31 and April 7.

In New York City, vendors must put a fuchsia stamp on packs showing that the $6.46 in combined state and city taxes has been paid before the cigarettes can be sold.

Neither of the men live in Riverdale or Kingsbridge, but their neighbors got quite a show the day of their arrests. 

Approximately 20 law enforcement officials from the New York County Sheriff’s Office and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office collaborated with the city and state departments of finance as they began staking out the Irwin Ave. home at 3 a.m. on May 18.  By 9 a.m., nearby residents said they noticed yellow police tape roping off Irwin Avenue between West 231st and 232nd streets.