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The Smuggler: Listen to Jorge Abraham

October 19, 2008

Jorge Abraham was a tobacco smuggler from El Paso who masterminded the trafficking of as many as half a billion cigarettes across the United States, sold largely by smoke shop vendors on Indian reservations in New York. A quadriplegic, Abraham could have received 300 years in prison when he was arrested in 2004. But when news broke that the government's star witness allegedly oversaw a dozen murders at a drug cartel "House of Death" across the border, prosecutors cut Jorge a deal he couldn't refuse.

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The Deal — How Jorge got his start in the illicit tobacco trade.

Marketing the Contraband — Camels for Indians, Newports for blacks.

The First Seizure — Not a big deal.

The Rat — When seizures increased, Jorge knew he had an informant.

Read the full story.

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