Man gets three years in prison for Cuban cigars

[rawstory]

Found on the liberal alternative to Drudge, The Raw Story, http://www.rawstory.com

Man Sentenced for Smuggling Cuban Cigars
Wednesday June 9, 2004 9:16 PM

By HERBERT G. McCANN

Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO (AP) - A lawyer was sentenced Wednesday to more than three years in federal prison for smuggling thousands of fine Cuban cigars into this country and selling them for a fat profit.

Richard ``Mick'' Connors, 54, was also fined $60,000 and placed on three years' probation.

U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman ordered Connors taken into custody immediately, despite a request that he be allowed to attend his daughter's wedding later this month. The judge said the former public defender is too familiar with ways to flee the country.

Connors was convicted in 2002 of smuggling, trading with the enemy, conspiracy and lying to a passport officer.

Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo since the early 1960s.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4186820,00.html

###

When are we going to get over this whole Cuba thing?

[DS1]

1. Good thing they didn't find the fourth, I suppose

[Mika]

2. Did you know that congress granted themselves an exemption from the ban?

They go to Cuba and get as many cigars as they can get, no problem.

The rest of us? NO WAY. Our jackboot government deems Cuba OFF LIMITS for the "regular" citizenry.


Mr Kerry, Tear down the wall!

---

Kerry's stated policy on Cuba:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/8848574.htm

Cuba will remain under US sanctions

We will still be travel banned unless our travel is deemed politically worthy by US gov jackboots

[HuckleB]

13. Can you link me to this story?

[Mika]

14. It was in 1998 or 1999

Before Elian, they snuck it in on some treasury bill. I don't know where I could dig up that story. I remember it because I follow Cuba related stories. Maybe JudiLyn has a link.

[Purrfessor]

18. Here's a link

http://www.phaster.com/unpretentious/cuban_cigars_legalized.html

[Mika]

20. Thanks

[David Zephyr]

3. Thank God! I Fell Soooooooo Much Safer Now.

How dare this man not patronize the American tobacco industry which employs great patriots like Kenneth Starr!

How dare this treasonist man purchase cigars from Cuba, of all places!

I guess this means that we can all take the duct tape down from around our homes now, right?

[Jacobin]

4. Hey. Them Ceegar Terraists is thu worstest kind

All Hail Bush Ashcrack and Cheney fer pertectin us Gawd fearin' christians.

:eyes:

[Tempest]

5. Rush's supplier?

He is well known for smoking illegal Cuban cigars.

[Bandit]

15. He actually flaunts the fact he smokes Cubans

Are all Republican big wigs above the law?

[struggle4progress]

21. Quick answer to your question: Yes.

[MuseRider]

6. My son

brought back about 100 of them last year after his trip to Cuba. I don't know what the law is but I think you are allowed some. This just stinks, the whole thing just stinks. My son is not going back this summer, it just got too difficult. Perhaps next year.

7. He did make a fat profit, though

according to the article.
So to play the devil's advocate, (because I'm actually against the embargo), seems like he got his come-uppance. The embargo helped him make a profit on the cigars and then it turned around and bit him.

I don't know how sorry I feel for the guy.

[shraby]

8. What about the Bush

items for sale on his website that were from Burma???

[Walt Starr]

9. Shit, he should have known better

Take off the bands and ship them in Nicaraguan boxes. Mail the bands in an envelope.

SHEESH!

There is no way to tell the difference between real Cuban cigars and Nicaraguan cigars unless you have a connesiurs taste and you light it up. Even a DNA test won't tell the difference because when the revolution happened, the owners of the plantations and factories left with seeds of the same Cuban strains, which they now grow in Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic.

[FlemingsGhost]

10. Somewhere, Ken Lay is laughing his ass off.

Probably smoking a Cuban.

Here's hoping "Mick" Connors is a Republican ...

[HuckleB]

11. Let me see...

We could have an import tax on those to help pay off the debt, a local sales tax to help shore up our floundering education system, and the guy might hire an employee or two, thus creating jobs.

Instead, we're going to pay to put the guy in jail? And that doesn't include all the money spent to investigate and prosecute the guy.

Ridiculous.

[rawstory]

16. But taxes are against good GOP principles!

LOL...It would have been great if Reagan and Castro died on the same day!

[DoNotRefill]

12. It'd be outrageous if he just smuggled some for himself....

but running a criminal enterprise for a profit? A three year sentence is light....

[UpInArms]

17. this should piss off those "free trading"

GOPers.

Oh, I forgot - we can only have "free trade" if it benefits the crony corporatists.

[0007]

19. What a crock of shit!