2006 New York Code - Forfeiture Action With Respect To Tobacco Products.

 
    §  1846-a.  Forfeiture  action  with  respect to tobacco products. (a)
  Whenever a police officer designated in section  1.20  of  the  criminal
  procedure  law  or  a  peace  officer  designated in subdivision four of
  section 2.10 of such law, acting pursuant to his special  duties,  shall
  discover  any  tobacco  products in excess of five hundred cigars or ten
  pounds of tobacco which are being imported for sale in the  state  where
  the person importing or causing such tobacco products to be imported has
  not  been  appointed  as  a distributor pursuant to section four hundred
  seventy-two of this chapter, such police officer  or  peace  officer  is
  hereby  authorized  and empowered forthwith to seize and take possession
  of such tobacco products. Such  tobacco  products  seized  by  a  police
  officer  or  peace  officer  shall be turned over to the commissioner of
  taxation and finance. Such seized tobacco products shall be forfeited to
  the state. The commissioner  of  taxation  and  finance  may,  within  a
  reasonable  time thereafter, upon publication of a notice to such effect
  for at least five  successive  days,  before  the  day  of  sale,  in  a
  newspaper  published  or  circulated in the county where the seizure was
  made, sell such forfeited tobacco products at public sale  and  pay  the
  proceeds  into  the  state  treasury  to the credit of the general fund.
  Tobacco products so seized and sold shall be sold only to a  distributor
  appointed  under  article  twenty of this chapter and the notice of sale
  shall contain a provision to this effect.
    (b) In the alternative, the commissioner, on reasonable notice by mail
  or otherwise, may permit the person from whom said tobacco products were
  seized to redeem the said tobacco products by the  payment  of  the  tax
  due,  plus  a  penalty of fifty per centum thereof, plus interest on the
  amount of tax due for each month or  fraction  thereof  after  such  tax
  became  due  (determined  without  regard  to  any extension of time for
  filing or paying) at the rate  applicable  under  subparagraph  (ii)  of
  paragraph  (a)  of subdivision one of section four hundred eighty-one of
  this chapter and the costs incurred  in  such  proceeding,  which  total
  payment  shall  not  be  less than five dollars; provided, however, that
  such seizure and sale or redemption shall not be deemed to  relieve  any
  person  from  fine  or  imprisonment  provided  for  in this article for
  violation of any provision of article twenty of this chapter.
    (c) In the alternative, if the commissioner concludes that any tobacco
  products seized pursuant to this section, when offered at  public  sale,
  will  bring  a  price less than the reasonably estimated price which the
  department of correctional services would have to pay for  the  purchase
  of  such  tobacco products for sale to or use by inmates in institutions
  under the jurisdiction of such department, the commissioner may  dispose
  of  such  tobacco  products  by  transferring  them to the department of
  correctional  services  for  sale  to  or  use  by   inmates   in   such
  institutions.