NCJ Number
145438
Journal
Truckers News Dated: (September 1993) Pages: 1,10-13
Date Published
1993
Length
4 pages
Annotation
An article from Truckers News which discusses the problems posed by persons who sell adulterated diesel fuel for use in trucks and residences.
Abstract
A lucrative scam being run involves the mixing of waste oil such as the sludge that forms at the bottom of residential and commercial fuel tanks with pure virgin oil and selling it cheaply as diesel or heating oil. State and Federal Government are cheated out of millions of dollars because no taxes are paid when these products are sold. Diesel engines in trucks cannot function properly with contaminated fuel and are destroyed. Serious environmental problems also result and people who use it as heating fuel may be poisoned by the polluted air in their homes. Several States including New York and New Jersey participated in a major bust in the spring of 1993 that resulted in the arrest of several alleged crime figures and Russian immigrants who were charged with running a fuel tax scam. This was one of the biggest environmental investigations ever undertaken.