Bowie man pleads guilty in cigarette-trafficking scheme
A Bowie man who owned a College Park auto glass business pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by extortion in a scheme to illegally transport and sell millions of cigarettes across state lines, said the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland.
Amir Miljkovic, 39, owner of Prestige Auto Glass, is among six people in Maryland and Virginia so far to plead guilty in the scheme. Nine people total have been charged, including two former Prince George’s County police officers.
The illegal trafficking of more than 17 million cigarettes cost Maryland, Virgina and the federal government more than $2.8 million in unpaid taxes, according to Miljkovic’s plea agreement filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.
Miljkovic faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine and is scheduled for sentencing Oct. 14, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
No one answered the phone at a house in Bowie listed for Miljkovic. His attorney, William C. Brennan Jr., did not return a call for comment by press time.
According to prosecutors, Miljkovic was involved in a scheme with other conspirators who included Chun “Eddy” Chen, 34, a carry-out store owner from Bowie; Richard Delabrer, 46, a former Prince George’s County police officer from Laurel; and Jose Moreno, 50, of Alexandria, Va.
The three men, who along with Miljkovic were indicted, also have pleaded guilty and face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the release.
Delabrer also faces a mandatory minimum of five years, and up to life, for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Also charged in the scheme were Amrik Singh Melhi and his wife, Ravinder Kaur Melhi, of Clarksville, and Chong Chin Kim of Beltsville, a former corporal with the Prince George’s County Police Department.
Melhi and his wife, who own liquor stores in Hyattsville and Lanham, pleaded guilty June 16. Kim has not yet filed a plea.
Miljkovic and Delabrer, who allegedly provided armed protection for shipments, bought cigarettes from an undercover agent and resold them to Chen and others who sold them to people in New York, where taxes on cigarettes are more than $8 a pack, according to prosecutors.
The loss in taxes attributable to Miljkovic and the illegal cigarette trafficking is more than $2.8 million, with $1.7 million in unpaid taxes owed to Maryland, $255,600 owed to Virginia and about $860,000 owed to the federal government, according to the release. As part of his plea agreement, Miljkovic and co-conspirators agreed to forefit more than $2.8 million.
Conducting the investigation were the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service.