Associated Press - November 5, 2009 4:55 PM ET

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) - Fourteen people have been charged with illegally purchasing 77 million contraband cigarettes from undercover agents in Virginia over the last year and smuggling them to New York.

2 of those charged also allegedly paid an undercover hit man to murder a man and his wife whom they believed had stolen from them.

The indictments handed up Thursday in federal court in Alexandria culminate a yearlong investigation.

The defendants allegedly paid $8 million plus guns and drugs to the undercover agents in exchange for the cigarettes.

Cigarette smuggling has increased in recent years as high taxes in New York and elsewhere have made smuggling more profitable.

The defendants lived in Virginia, Maryland, New York and the District of Columbia.

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