Swansea man sentenced for illegal sale of cigarettes, tax evasion
FALL RIVER, Mass. (WLNE) — A Swansea man was sentenced on Sept. 29 for the illegal sale of cigarettes in Massachusetts, according to Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn, III.
46-year-old Linwood Cowen was sentenced to one year at the House of Corrections after he pled guilty to charges of tax evasion and selling unstamped cigarettes.
According to Quinn, the defendant would purchase large quantities of cigarettes in New Hampshire and sell them at a discounted price in Massachusetts, avoiding the state’s excise tax.
On June 15, 2022, a MSP trooper surveilled Cowen, who Quinn said drove from Taunton, Mass. to Nashua, New Hampshire.
He was observed to have purchased several cartons of cigarettes in New Hampshire, which were taken to Massachusetts.
During the investigation, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue Criminal Investigations Bureau and the MSP Illegal Tobacco Task Force discovered that Cowen was not a licensed cigarette wholesaler or retailer of cigarettes in Massachusetts.
According to Quinn, Cowen avoided paying Massachusetts’ excise tax of $3.51 over 18 months, which the Massachusetts DOR totaled to about $78,000 in lost tax revenue.
