Police launch crackdown on scourge of illegal Newports sold behind the Grove Hall Stop & Shop

Boston Police report arresting a man they say was selling bootleg Newport cigarettes and illegal weed out of his car behind the Stop & Shop at 468 Blue Hill Ave. in Grove Hall.

Manestreem Fourty-Four, who is 51, was also packing "a tan and silver 9mm SCCY Industries CPX-2 firearm with 11 rounds of ammunition in its magazine" in a "tactical satchel," police say, adding that when officers moved in to arrest him Saturday afternoon, he "resisted by pushing an officer and attempting to flee in his vehicle," but that he was unsuccessful in his attempt.

People have been selling bootleg Newports - the state banned them and other flavored cigarettes in 2020 - behind the Stop & Shop for years.

Police say they decided to crack down because of "numerous complaints from local residents about drug activity and the illicit sale of unstamped cigarettes in the area, which negatively impacted the community and nearby businesses," and that they watched Fourty-Four exchange cigs for cash on both Friday and Saturday.

Police charged Fourty-Four with possession of unstamped cigarettes, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, unlawful possession of a large-capacity firearm, unlawful possession of a large-capacity feeding device, unlawful possession of ammunition, driving without insurance and having an unregistered vehicle.

Police say Fourty-Four gave a Greensboro, AL address. But he is familiar with Boston since he used to live on Hyde Park Avenue in Roslindale, according to a 2018 "affidavit of live birth declaration" from the Moorish American National Republic's Moorish National Bureau of Vital Statistics, which he filed as part of a 2020 federal lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Revenue's Child Support Enforcement Division.

The division had been trying for years to make him pay child support, and he didn't want to because as a Moorish Sovereign Citizen, he is "a Man with National origin a Hebrew Moslem of Moorish descendant created by the great God Allah, and he dwells in a country, a portion of the earth's surface of Massachusetts Bay outside of the corporate U.S. State, and County jurisdiction." In particular, he claimed to object to the state's demand for his social-security number, which he claimed would let the revenuers "Hunt him like an animal" and deprive him of "his honestly acquired income against his will in violation of the Law thus depriving him of his secured rights, privileges and immunities."

US District Court Judge Denise Casper dismissed the case seven months later after, she wrote, she gave Fourty-Four a chance to file an amended complaint to "present facts to support a plausible claim for relief," and he did not.

As a Moorish Sovereign Citizen, his name is properly not Manestreem Fourty-Four but :Mainstreem: Gray-Bey: Fourty-Four., yes, with the colons and period, but not the comma, that is just an editorial decision by the Universal Hub editor to break this sentence into more manageable clauses.

Suffolk County Probate Court records show the Department of Revenue has been wrangling with him over child support since at least 2003.

Innocent, etc.

His complaint in the 2020 suit (990k PDF).
Various Moorish certifications filed with the suit (5.4M PDF).