What Were They Thinking

Sunrise Family Market and Pizzeria in Exmore Busted

Two local businessmen were sentenced to probation Monday in Norfolk Federal District Court after pleading guilty to trafficking thousands of cartons of contraband cigarettes as part of a plea bargain. Judge Raymond A. Jackson dismissed other related charges against Senel Cuce, 29, of Melfa, co-owner of Sunrise Family Market and Pizzeria in Exmore, and his manager, Ali Riza Zulam, 41, of Pocomoke City, Md., after the prosecution asked for the move, according to court records. The two were placed on probation for three years, given a special assessment of $100 and ordered to pay nearly $39,000 in restitution, the amount that would have been assessed in taxes had the cigarettes been sold legally in other states. They were also reportedly placed on five months of home detention with electronic monitoring. The counts that were dropped included conspiracy criminal forfeiture; trafficking in contraband; and recordkeeping, reporting and inspections charges. According to court documents, the term “contraband cigarettes” means more than 10,000 cigarettes that “bear no evidence of the payment of applicable state or local cigarette taxes in the state or locality in which the cigarettes are found.” Since 2006, Atlantic Dominion Distributors, a cigarette wholesaler in Virginia Beach has served as the principal distributor to Sunrise. Sunrise legally sells a small quantity of cigarettes in Virginia each month, the court records show. In May of 2008 the quantity of cigarettes sold to Sunrise “dramatically increased.” According to an indictment, the illegal activity occurred between September 2008 and March 2009. In all, the men reportedly sold 2,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes from the store. They admitted to selling hundreds of cartons of cigarettes at a time to black marketers who would deliver them to New York and Pennsylvania, where cigarette taxes are much higher. The two were reportedly arrested earlier this year after selling contraband cigarettes to undercover federal agents. Zulam and Cuce reportedly made $10 profit per carton they sold on the black market.

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