De Blasio quietly filed untaxed cig suit the week of Garner decision

The New York Post reports:

Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered city lawyers to stay silent about a groundbreaking lawsuit to keep bootleg cigarettes out of the Big Apple — because it came as Hizzoner was downplaying the illegal cigarette sales that led to the ill-fated police arrest of Eric Garner, The Post has learned.

The city Law Department drafted the civil racketeering suit the same week that a Staten Island grand jury did not indict NYPD cop Daniel Pantaleo in Garner’s chokehold death, and it was quietly filed in Brooklyn federal court on Dec. 9.

The Law Department drafted a press release boasting that the suit “is the first of its kind brought by the city against an out-of-state entity for supplying cigarette traffickers,” sources said.

Bill de Blasio is against the free market in cigarettes because New York just can't compete.