California Business and Professions Code

§ 22978.2

BPC § 22978.2 Effective Jan 1, 2004Div. 8.6 · Ch. 3

Statute text

(a)Notwithstanding any other provision of this division, upon discovery by the board or a law enforcement agency that a distributor possesses, stores, owns, or has made a sale of an unstamped package of cigarettes bearing a counterfeit California state tax stamp or that a wholesaler possesses, stores, owns, or has made a sale of an unstamped package of cigarettes, the board or the law enforcement agency shall be authorized to seize the unstamped packages of cigarettes at the distributor’s or the wholesaler’s location. Any cigarettes seized by a law enforcement agency shall be delivered to the board, or its designee, within seven days, unless otherwise required to be used as evidence in an administrative, criminal, or civil proceeding, or as part of an ongoing law enforcement investigation. Any cigarettes seized by the board or delivered to the board by a law enforcement agency shall be deemed forfeited and the board shall comply with procedures set forth in Part 13 (commencing with Section 30436) of Division 2 of Chapter 7.5 of the Revenue and Taxation Code. In addition to the distributor’s or wholesaler’s inventory of unstamped packages of cigarettes being subject to seizure and forfeiture, the possession, storage, ownership or sale by a distributor or wholesaler of the unstamped package of cigarettes in the manner described above, shall constitute a misdemeanor punishable by the following actions:

(1)A first violation involving seizure of a total quantity of less than 20 unstamped packages of cigarettes shall be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000) or imprisonment not to exceed one year in a county jail, or both the fine and imprisonment.

(2)A second violation within five years involving seizure of a total quantity of less than 20 unstamped packages of cigarettes shall be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than two thousand dollars ($2,000) but not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) or imprisonment not to exceed one year in a county jail, or both the fine and imprisonment, and shall also result in the revocation of the license.

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Legislative history

Added by Stats. 2003, Ch. 890, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2004.