Police have arrested a Queens man they say had more than 1,000 cartons of illegal cigarettes.
Investigators say they saw 42-year-old Khaled Alshoaibi loading the cigarettes into a van, followed him, and later found nearly 200 cartons in the van.
They say the cigarettes did not have state and city tax stamps.
They then got a warrant to search a suspected stash location on 101st Avenue in South Ozone Park and allegedly found another 800 cartons, along with more than $3,000 in cash.
Residents say they were surprised to see this going on in their neighborhood.
"Cops ran up in there, ATF, DEA and everybody, taking out cases of cigarettes, cars, cash," said one resident. "It's like a movie or something."
"I live down the street and I didn't even know about it. So it's scary that things like that are happening here and people that really live here don't even know about it," said another.
Alshoabi faces felony tax evasion charges and a misdemeanor for allegedly trying to sell them without a license.
Among the penalties he could face are fines of up to $600 per carton seized.