The more than $770,000 seized at JFK Airport last week in the luggage of a man flying to Qatar is suspected of being part of the illegal profits earned in an illicit cigarette operation, law-enforcement sources said Monday.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is probing a ring believed to have earned millions of dollars by evading state and city taxes, the sources said.
Part of the probe is focusing on the March 1 seizure at JFK Airport of the cash found in the luggage of Abdulkarim Altareb, 48, who was trying to board a plane bound to Doha, the capital of Qatar.
Customs officials pulled Altareb out of a screening line and subsequently discovered the money, comprising fat rolls of $50 and $100 bills that were stuffed into various drugstore sundries, including packages of Alka-Seltzer and Band-Aids, and even a pair of Adidas sneakers.
Altareb allegedly told investigators the dough was meant to be used to construct buildings in Yemen.