A person charged with tobacco smuggling could face 3 to 5 years in prison per count. It is quite common for a defendant to face several counts for cigarette trafficking stemming from the same alleged scheme, so there is potential for a lengthy sentence from cigarette charges alone.
On top of this, the federal government will often stack on other related charges, such as money laundering, wire fraud, mail fraud, or tax fraud. Each of these charges carry very serious penalties, some even punishable for up to 20 years per count.
Additionally, the federal government will often throw in a count for conspiracy to commit tobacco trafficking and other crimes. This charges only requires evidence that a proper scheme to commit trafficking existed without evidence of actual trafficking.
Suffice to say, these are not the kinds of charges you want to face with an attorney who doesn’t have experience in both North Carolina and federal court .