Surveillance Operations
Detective Fromme continued to monitor the purchases for several months, and determined cell members were transporting the cigarette cartons across state lines, in violation of federal laws. Each of the four men Fromme was watching purchased 299 cartons of cigarettes, the legal limit permitted without filing legal paperwork. Cigarettes were moved from North Carolina to Tennessee and Virginia. Fromme notified John Lorick, of the Charlotte ATF. ATF officials informed Fromme that cigarette trafficking was likely an attempt to sell the merchandise for as much as twice the price in states such as Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania - which had considerably higher taxes on tobacco. North Carolina's tax on cigarettes was five cents, whereas it was seventy-five cents in Michigan at the time. The Hezbollah cell was selling the cigarettes through "front store" operations, and to local convenience stores in Dearborn, Michigan, with a price difference between North Carolina and Michigan ranging from $8.00 - $10.00 per carton. Each 680-mile cigarette smuggling trip to Michigan carried between 800 and 1,500 cartons of cigarettes, worth between $3,000 and $10,000. Some cell members fraudulently secured a $1.6 million loan from the federal government's Small Business Administration, which funded the opening of a gas station.
The Iredell County Sheriff's Office signed a memorandum of understanding with the Charlotte ATF, permitting the formal collaboration between the two agencies. As a result, Detective Fromme was officially reassigned to the ATF. Additional federal agencies were assigned to the case, including the Defense Security Service, and Immigration and Naturalization Service. The FBI, which had already been wiretapping communications of two of the cell members, apparently without the knowledge of local law enforcement, also participated in the joint operations. In all, sixteen law enforcement and intelligence services from state, local, and federal agencies contributed to the operation, including the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Surveillance was run from an empty storefront across from the JR Discount wholesaler building. The cell was secretly followed by a team of five vehicles, which took turns driving behind the cigarette smugglers. "As an extra precaution, the agents sometimes changed clothes and switched license plates during pit stops."
Read more about this topic: Operation Smokescreen
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)