The defendants are accused of smuggling more than 100 million cigarettes into the United States.
The bootleggers, the lawsuit said, then shipped the cigarettes into the city.
They dip cigarettes into vials of PCP to create dippies, which smell like formaldehyde.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of facilitating, through their distribution routes and mechanisms, the smuggling of cigarettes into Europe.
An elderly family member started smoking as a young person, maybe a teenager, tucking a pack of cigarettes into his rolled-up shirtsleeve or into her purse.
Dr. Xue's interrogators tortured him by pressing cigarettes into his arms, people who have sought his release have said after visiting him in custody.
Mr. Kow, who was arrested in Manila, is also accused of trying to smuggle millions of dollars' worth of counterfeit cigarettes into the United States.
Smugglers can niftily get 600 cartons (that is, ten packs of 20 cigarettes) into a car, and 12,000 into a large van.
Bootlegging, the shipping of cigarettes into New York without paying state taxes, has become a bigger problem since the state doubled its tax in March.
IN one Connecticut bar recently, a bartender served drinks to a row of customers as they tipped their cigarettes into plastic ashtrays, filling the air with smoke.
But the freest market these days is the line of peddlers at border posts who seize on the tax breaks to smuggle cheap cigarettes into Poland.
