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Florida Man Convicted of Counterfeit Cigarette Trafficking
Gaurav Joseph Jayaseelan, a 25-year-old Indian citizen, has been convicted of selling counterfeit cigarettes in Florida. The investigation began in January 2013 when a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) undercover agent met with a third-party in Kingston, Jamaica to discuss the sale of counterfeit Marlboro brand cigarettes.
Over the course of a year, agents negotiated a deal to sell and ship 1,100 ‘master cases’ of counterfeit Marlboro Reds for a total cost of $377,300. In August 2013, agents met with Jayaseelan in Miami, who claimed to represent the producer of the counterfeit cigarettes.
Jayaseelan told agents that he and his father owned and operated a tobacco manufacturing plant in the Middle East and India, which could manufacture any tobacco brand. However, in December 2013, Jayaseelan sent an email advising that they had to temporarily shut down their counterfeit Marlboro plant to avoid detection by law enforcement.
Subsequently, Jayaseelan offered to provide counterfeit Newport cigarettes, and two cartons were provided to an address in India. In January 2014, Jayaseelan advised agents that he would send 1,030 master cases of Newport cigarettes for a total value of $450,625.
The shipment was seized in Fort Lauderdale by Customs and Border Protection officers in April 2014, and had an estimated United States street value of more than $1 million. Jayaseelan was arrested in August 2015 when he tried to sell counterfeit cigarettes in Florida.
Jayaseelan faces a maximum statutory sentence of up to three years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and supervised release of up to three years for selling the counterfeit cigarettes. He also faces up to ten years in prison, a fine of up to $2,000,000, and a three-year term of supervised release for trafficking in the cigarette cartons.
Jayaseelan is scheduled to be sentenced on January 22, 2016 at 1:15 pm. The investigation was conducted by the FDA/OCI in coordination with Customs and Border Protection officers and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) agents.
Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: White Collar Crime|Organized Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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