Press Release
INDIVIDUAL INDICTED AS PART OF A LARGE SCALE CIGARETTE SMUGGLING AND MONEY LAUNDERING OPERATION
March 6, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Investigations, announced that Roman Vidal was arraigned on an Indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Miami yesterday, on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349, mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341, and smuggling goods out of the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 554. Vidal, who had been arrested pursuant to a complaint on February 19, 2009, was released pending trial on bond on February 20, 2009.
According to the Indictment and an affidavit filed with the complaint, the investigation revealed that an organization smuggling cigarettes out of the Port of Miami operated out of Spain, Great Britain, Ireland and Miami, Florida. Vidal ran the Miami portion of the operation. Vidal arranged for the purchase of hundreds of cases of cigarettes from Panama and the transportation of those cigarettes into the Port of Miami. Vidal then arranged for the purchase of other cargo, such as wood flooring and building insulation material, to be used as cover loads to conceal the cigarettes which were re-packed with the cover load material. Under the direction of Vidal, false bills of lading were prepared that only declared the cover load material. These bills of lading were presented to the shipping companies and overseas customs services. Customs duties and taxes were based on the falsely declared cargo, thus no duties or taxes were paid on the cigarettes. Information contained in the affidavit includes that on two separate occasions, Vidal transported approximately 13.3 million cigarettes in shipments, one to Dublin, Ireland and one to Felixstowe, Great Britain. Based upon the false bills of lading, custom duties and taxes paid on these shipments were approximately, $2,900 and $2,500, respectively. The true customs duties and taxes that should have been paid on these shipments were $2.1 million each.
Mr. Acosta thanked Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Investigations, and the European Anti-Fraud Office based in Brussels, Belgium for their joint outstanding work on this case. Extensive assistance was provided by law enforcement agencies from Ireland, Great Britain, Germany and Spain as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, Criminal Division. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Stone.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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