14 charged with cigarette smuggling

Federal prosecutors in Alexandria charged 14 people Thursday with paying money or trading guns and drugs to purchase 388,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes intended for sale in New York.

The case in U.S. District Court is the latest to target smugglers who buy truckloads of cigarettes from undercover agents in Virginia and sell them in other states without paying the required cigarette taxes. Federal officials have been cracking down on the practice for years.

The people charged Thursday with trafficking in contraband cigarettes allegedly purchased them in Stafford County. Two people were also charged with agreeing to hire a hit man to kill a man and his wife who were believed to be stealing some of the cigarettes.