Two Rocky Mount men are among 21 people indicted in a $20 million cigarette tax fraud scheme.

Rocky Mount police and the Bronx County, New York District Attorney's Office say the scheme involved people buying cigarettes in North Carolina and Virginia for about $50 a carton and then shipping them to the Bronx where cartons retail for about $130 each. The cheap smokes were then sold at bodegas and delis.

New York authorities say some 5,000 cartons of cigarettes a week were smuggled from North Carolina and Virginia.

Rocky Mount police say on June 8th they arrested Omar Naser, 22, and Shaher Dari, 28, as New York fugitives. Both Rocky Mount men are in the Nash County jail awaiting their return to New York to face charges.

Prosecutors say if convicted of the top count of the indictments, most of the defendants face between 8 and 25 years in prison.

"This criminal enterprise not only allegedly cheated the state and city out of taxes, but undercuts mom-and-pop stores that serve our neighborhoods," said Bronx D.A. Darcel Clark. "Law-abiding businesses cannot compete with stores illegally selling untaxed, cheap cigarettes down the block. We want to extinguish this type of criminal activity, and we will pursue nearly $17 million in profits from the defendants."