Five Mobile County Merchants Charged with Trafficking in Contraband Cigarettes

United States Attorney, Richard W. Moore, of the Southern District of Alabama announces that five area merchants and an employee of one of the merchants were indicted for violations of Title 18 United States Code, Section 2342(a), trafficking in contraband cigarettes. They include, Thy Touch, a 45 year old resident of Mobile, Alabama; Reginald Lyons, a 43   year old resident of Mobile, Alabama; Sakhoeuth Khan, a 33 year old resident of Mobile, Alabama; Khalil N Al-Mashni, a 51 year old resident of Mobile, Alabama; Shahid Abassi, a 42 year old resident of Mobile, Alabama; and Shameka Mallory, a 39 year old resident of Mobile, Alabama. Upon conviction, each would face a maximum penalty of five years of incarceration, a fine of $250,000 and a supervised release term of three years.
United States Attorney Moore stated, “We appreciate the very aggressive and thorough job done by both the ATF and the Mobile, Alabama Police Department in making these cases.  Our prosecutor, Gina Vann, has coordinated the prosecution efforts on these cases which I very much appreciate.  Trafficking in illegal contraband of any kind hurts honest businesses that follow the law. I am encouraging all our law enforcement partners to be on the lookout for these kinds of crimes that undermine our economy.  We will prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law.”
ATF Special Agent in Charge, Marcus Watson, also remarked, “ATF’s partnerships with law enforcement and the community are an effective tool in enforcing our mission.” 
An indictment is a determination by a grand jury that there is probable cause to believe that offenses have been committed by a defendant. A defendant, of course, is presumed innocent until and unless he or she is proven guilty at trial.