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After Massachusetts officials released a recent bipartisan statewide ban, report showing a sharp rise in seasoned tobacco and steam attacks under a network of former ATF officials and veterans specializing in contraband, they questioned why the ban remains.
The annual multi-agency report from Bay State’s Illegal Tobacco Task Force has shown inspiratory attacks since 2023, mainly due to large-scale seizures, but smoke-free cigarettes and standard tobacco attacks have been declining.
Calculations by the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network show that Massachusetts State Police seized 279,432 steam units in 2024, up from around 1,300 the previous year.
Former New York City Sheriff Edgar Domenek, who is also a former ATF official focusing on tobacco and related contraband, told Fox News Digital that the findings showed that the illegal blood-sucking market was “exploding,” and when Baystate surpassed the first seasoned tobacco, it was a call from the cartel and smugglers’ clarion.[we’re] Open for business. ”
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“The 21,000% increase in smuggling proves that Massachusetts’ flavor ban experiment is an embarrassing catastrophe,” said Domenek, who was appointed to his Big Apple Post by then-Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg and is now working with Georgetown University.
“They spend so much time, and that’s literally not where they can find a place to store contraband,” he said.
The rule of law is important, but he suggested that sometimes the new law itself may need to be revisited.
Without the ability to collect taxes on illegal products elsewhere in New England, states adjacent to states like New Hampshire (within an hour of Boston) are trying to enjoy the tax benefits of Massachusetts’ ban so that customers get out of the way a little to buy the product, he said.
Domenech added that “Never Works” for adult products like Vapes will be banned. “It moves sales from the store onto the street.”
Ramaswamy imitates the mass governor’s illegal immigration stance after the flip: “It’s acceptable to complain now.”
In January, Boston police, a drug control unit, arrested a 58-year-old Dorchester man as part of an attack that netted a 50-gram crack and 700 packages of “unlawfully owned menthol cigarettes.” The man, Parish Jones, was charged with human trafficking cigarettes.
According to Fox Boston, a Hopkinton man was allegedly arrested in June and he allegedly failed to pay nearly $500,000 in excise tax as he allegedly sought an out-of-state distributor to sell vape-type products.
The ban itself came into effect in December 2019 as the Massachusetts Public Health Council enacted a new sales restriction on steam and flavored tobacco.
The panel was able to do so after that. Republican Charles Baker has signed a bill from the Democratic Congress’ “modernizing cigarettes.”
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A man sucking steam. (istock)
More recently, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office filed a complaint against Vape Company in 2024, when the company allegedly ignored the ban on flavored cigarettes. The firm has also sued several other companies before, according to the statement.
In November, several Massachusetts lawmakers announced plans to file law this year to begin selling the Bay of Minors and phase out all cigarettes and nicotine sales in the state.
According to NBC Boston, Senator Jason Lewis, D-Middlesex, Kate Lipper-Garabedian, D-Melrose and D-Brookline’s Rep. Tommy Vitolo are working together on the bill.
Fox News Digital contacted AG’s office for further response, but did not respond to the reporting time.
Charles Kraitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers the media, politics and culture of Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
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