Ten shipping containers rolling through Florida were supposed to be carrying refrigerated products. Instead, customs officials say they were stuffed with more than 430,000 cartons of cigarettes worth over $5.3 million — a mislabeled shipment that fell apart once inspectors took a closer look.
Containers Marked as Refrigerated Goods Hid a Massive Tobacco Haul
According to West Orlando News, the ten containers were declared as refrigerated products but were actually packed with the massive cigarette shipment. The outlet reports the scheme amounted to a multi-million-dollar cigarette smuggling attempt that fell apart after the shipment was improperly declared to customs officials. The figures on the cartons and their value are attributed to CBP’s Miami and Tampa field office, per the same report.
CBP’s Miami and Tampa field office offered a blunt take on the attempt, saying, “Trying to keep your smoking under wraps? This isn’t the way!” The quip underscores just how brazen the mislabeling scheme was — ten full containers disguised as something as mundane as refrigerated cargo, all to mask a shipment valued north of $5.3 million.
Florida's History of Catching Mislabeled Tobacco Shipments
This isn't the first time Florida customs officers have intercepted a tobacco shipment trying to slip past inspection. In September 2025, authorities stopped a shipment of counterfeit cigarettes from entering South Florida, with the cigarettes packed into more than 700 boxes and an estimated street value of roughly $600,000, according to WSVN. Years earlier, in March 2018, CBP and ICE agents seized about six million counterfeit cigarettes worth more than $1 million during an inspection at a Miami warehouse, as reported by NBC Miami.
Federal agencies have also ramped up enforcement against illegal e-cigarette products moving through Florida ports in recent years. The FDA announced the seizure of more than 628,000 unauthorized e-cigarette products from a Miami warehouse on January 10, 2025, in a joint operation with Homeland Security Investigations and CBP, according to the FDA. The agency has separately said that illegal e-cigarette products seized in related operations lacked the mandatory premarket authorization orders required to be legally marketed or distributed in the United States, per the FDA's announcement of an $86.5 million e-cigarette seizure.
What Federal Law Says About Mislabeled and Contraband Shipments
Smuggling attempts that rely on false paperwork to move goods into U.S. commerce can run afoul of federal statute. Under 18 U.S.C. § 542, it is unlawful to enter or attempt to enter imported merchandise into U.S. commerce by means of fraudulent statements or other fraudulent means, according to the statutory text published by the U.S. House Office of the Law Revision Counsel.
Separately, Chapter 114 of Title 18 makes it unlawful for a person to knowingly ship, transport, receive, possess, sell, distribute or purchase contraband cigarettes or contraband smokeless tobacco, and also bars knowingly making a false statement or representation concerning them, according to the same statutory chapter. That chapter defines contraband cigarettes as more than 10,000 cigarettes lacking evidence that applicable state or local taxes were paid, in jurisdictions that require a tax stamp or other proof of payment, and held by someone outside a specific set of exceptions.
It remains unclear exactly where in Florida the ten containers were intercepted, who imported them, or whether anyone has faced charges in connection with the shipment. What's documented so far is the scale of the attempt: ten containers, hundreds of thousands of cartons, and a customs catch that CBP's Miami and Tampa field office didn't let pass without a pointed remark.
