Sept. 17--A former Prince George's County police officer has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a scheme to transport and distribute untaxed cigarettes from Virginia to Maryland.
Chong Chin Kim, 44, of Odenton, also received three years of supervised probation upon his release and was ordered to forfeit more than $2.6 million.
The sentence was handed down Thursday by Judge Peter J. Messitte in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.
According to his plea, starting July 2010, Kim, then a 16-year veteran with the police department, conspired with Chun "Eddy" Chen, owner of a carry-out store in Maryland, Amir Miljkovic, owner of Prestige Auto Glass in College Park, and former Prince George's County police officer Richard Delabrer.
Officials said Delabrer and Miljkovic purchased contraband cigarettes from an undercover FBI agent in Virginia, then sold them to Kim and Chen. On at least one occasion, Kim helped unload the cigarettes at his storage facility while dressed in his police uniform, armed with his service weapon and driving his marked police cruiser.
Kim was involved with all but one of the 33 transactions with the undercover agent. Altogether, the men paid the agent more than $1.7 million for more than 17 million contraband cigarettes. Officials said the tax loss attributable to Kim was more than $2.6 million.
Delabrer, 47, of Laurel, who was assigned to the Prince George's County Police robbery squad, was sentenced in July to nearly four years in prison followed by two years of supervised probation for his role in the scheme. He was ordered to forfeit a house purchased with proceeds from the scheme and to pay $183,799.
Miljkovic, 40, and Chen, 36, both of Bowie, also pleaded guilty to the scheme.
Miljkovic was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution and forfeit $230,580, including $183,799 seized from his home at the time of his arrest.
Chen was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution and forfeit $213,000, including $117,800 seized from his home when he was arrested.
Copyright 2012 - The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
