A bill requiring cigarette and other tobacco retailers to obtain a license from the Virginia Department of Alcohol Beverage Control was reported out of the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services on Friday and is headed for the Senate Finance Committee.
Senate Bill 1230, sponsored by Sen. Bryce E. Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, is aimed at curbing illicit cigarette trafficking.
Current and former law enforcement officers told committee members Friday about problems caused by the traffickers who illegally take cigarettes from low-tax states such as Virginia to high-tax places such as New York City, where a carton of cigarettes costs three times as much.
“Cigarette trafficking has become the currency of organized crime,” Richard Marianos, a former assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told the committee.
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Under the proposal, the ABC Board would conduct a background investigation of applicants or the responsible principals, managers and others handling tobacco products at the businesses that would include a Virginia criminal history records search and fingerprints.
The bill was opposed by speakers from the Virginia Retail Merchants Association and the Virginia Retail Federation.