Investigation of illegal cigarette ring started in Stafford

Alexandria (WBQB/WFVA/AP)  -- Fourteen people have been charged with illegally purchasing 77 million contraband cigarettes from undercover agents in Virginia over the last year and smuggling them to New York. Two of those charged also allegedly paid an undercover hit man to murder a man and his wife whom they believed had stolen from them. The indictments handed up in federal court in Alexandria culminate a yearlong investigation that was started by the Stafford County Sheriff's Office. The defendants allegedly paid $8 million plus guns and drugs to the undercover agents in exchange for the cigarettes. Cigarette smuggling has increased in recent years as high taxes in New York and elsewhere have made smuggling more profitable. The defendants lived in Stafford, Maryland, New York and DC.