It doesn’t take much coaxing to get otherwise legitimate Big Apple businesses into the illegal cigarette trade.

“They come out here like they are salesman from Pepsi or the potato-chip company,” said the owner of a north Bronx bodega that sells smuggled Newports and Marlboros for $8 a pack.

“I don’t know how the city is going to stop it. The city is losing a lot of tax money,” he said. “They are killing themselves, because no one is paying $12 for a pack of cigarettes, and I’m not paying taxes on the money I make selling them.”

His supplier provides him with cartons between $45 and $50 a pop, which gives him a $30- to $35-per-carton profit.

But he refused to sell counterfeit Marlboros and Newports smuggled in from China that wholesaled for just $30 a carton because customers said they “tasted like garbage.”

Another store owner said his supply of untaxed cigarettes can be erratic.

“Whenever we get a chance, we buy them,” he said. “They don’t give their name or phone number because they’re afraid of getting busted.”

And busts do happen.

Distributor Abdullah Alsaidia, 37, was allegedly caught delivering 20 cartons of untaxed cigarettes to a deli on West 183rd Street in The Bronx, court records show.

State investigators with the Department of Taxation and Finance busted him and allegedly found 205 cartons of Newports, 10 cartons of Marlboros, two cartons of Winstons, and two cartons of Kools — all without tax stamps.

Despite the risks, individual entrepreneurs are also getting into the act.

“I needed a second job, and since I couldn’t find one, I decided to sell cigarettes,” said Gregg, a 30-year-old who sells cigarettes out of his backpack for $8 a pack in Midtown. “So far, I’m making a good profit. Sometimes I make $160 a day.”

Greg said he simply drives to Delaware, where he can get a carton for $27, and loads up his trunk.

“There’s an opportunity for folks, for what they probably consider a minimal risk, to make a lot of money,” said Ronald Turk, head of New York’s ATF office.

All that competition is tough for legitimate businesses.

“If someone has cigarettes for $8 and I am selling them for $11.50, they are going to buy them there,” said Faisel Alhalmi, manager of Joe’s Gourmet Health Deli, on Broadway near 125th.

chuck.bennett@nypost.com

