Abhishek Shukla, Counterfeit Newport Cigarette Conspiracy, FL 2017

Abhishek Shukla and Harish Shabhai Panchal, both citizens of India, along with the India-based corporation Jubilee Tobacco Industries Corp, were sentenced in federal District Court in Miami for conspiring to flood the U.S. with counterfeit Newport cigarettes. The operation, spanning from March 2015 to August 2017, targeted Florida’s black market, exploiting demand for cheap menthol smokes and dodging millions in taxes and federal oversight.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams handed down 23 months in prison to each individual defendant, followed by two years of supervised release. Jubilee Tobacco Industries Corp was slapped with two years of corporate probation and ordered to forfeit $300,000 to the United States. The penalties close a multi-year investigation led by the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, ICE-Homeland Security Investigations, and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

The defendants pled guilty to conspiring to sell and distribute counterfeit tobacco products bearing the trademarked Newport brand—registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and listed with the FDA. Authorities say the fake cartons, packs, and cigarettes were nearly indistinguishable from the real product. In total, the scheme involved approximately 68,600 cartons of counterfeit cigarettes, violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 371.

According to court records, the defendants initiated contact in 2015 with an individual cooperating with FDA-OCI, brokering illicit deals via the internet. A 20-foot container of counterfeit cigarettes shipped from India arrived at the Port of Miami on November 1, 2016. It was seized with help from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The untaxed haul had an estimated street value of $1.2 million in Florida. Lab analysis confirmed every component was fake.

Undeterred by the seizure, the conspirators pushed forward. Within two weeks, they approached undercover agents offering a second shipment—twice the size. By April 2017, $55,000 in deposits had been wired to accounts in India and Dubai. On June 9, 2017, another container arrived at the Port of Miami. Again, it was intercepted. If sold, the $3.2 million cache would have saturated underground markets across the Southeast.

In August 2017, Shukla and Panchal flew to Miami to meet undercover agents, pitching long-term partnerships. During a recorded meeting, they claimed 12 years of business partnership and direct oversight of production. They boasted they could replicate any American-made menthol cigarette ‘with no problem,’ revealing the chilling scale and confidence behind their counterfeit enterprise.