State's seizures skyrocket

County residents looking for a cheaper way to get cigarettes and alcohol will be facing a smaller market after the state Comptroller's Office had a boom year in seizures.

Standing in front of cases of Corona beer and Marlboro cigarettes in Annapolis yesterday, Comptroller Peter Franchot announced that his field enforcement agents seized about three times as many illegal cigarettes and more than double the gallons of distilled liquor and beer containers in fiscal 2009 as compared to fiscal 2008.

Agents issued 113 cigarette violations and confiscated 172,715 packs of cigarettes, which have a value of $853,220, between July...