York grand jury last week for en-
terprise corruption and money
laundering, were extradited to
New York Wednesday and were
expected to be arraigned Thurs-
day afternoon.
cluded an investi-
gation into a vast
multi-million dollar
cigarette smugg-
ling operation with
raids on two loca-
tions in and around the resort
area, including the West Ocean
City homes of residents Basel Ra-
madan, 42, who is being called
the "boss" of the enterprise, and
Samir Ramadan, 40, who is Basel
Ramadan's brother and has been
called the "enterprise treasurer."
Federal officials also raided the
Ramadan's offices over the
Subway restaurant they own at
Sunset Drive near 26th Street in
Ocean City on the same day.
community, $1.4 million in large
black bags was recovered, along
with 20,000 cartons of untaxed
cigarettes. Also seized were nu-
merous vehicles and other proper-
ty belonging to the Ramadans.
ed the vast cigarette smuggling
operation out of their Ocean City
properties, but 14 other co-con-
spirators, from transporters to dis-
tributors to resellers, were also
rounded up at locations all over
the mid-Atlantic region.
dans and their co-conspirators al-
legedly funneled thousands of car-
tons of untaxed smokes and mil-
lions of dollars in ill-gotten revenue
through Ocean City and Worcester
wholesaler in Vir-
ginia to a distribu-
tion warehouse in
Delaware, from
whence the illegal,
untaxed cigarettes
were distributed to
retail outlets all
ments against the Ramadans and
their alleged 14 co-conspirators.
As of yesterday, 15 suspects had
been arrested including the Ra-
madan brothers, but a 16th sus-
pect had fled the country to an
unknown location in the Middle
East, according to a New York At-
torney General's Office spokes-
person. Eleven of the arrested
suspects were arraigned in New
York last week, while the two Ra-