Tobacco Distributor Pleads Not Guilty

{ Kentucky}...Forty-one year old Pedro "Peter" Bello, of Miami, Florida, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges in Kentucky of using phony invoices to avoid paying taxes on millions of dollars' worth of cigarettes that he sold in several states. During an arraignment in Louisville, U.S. Magistrate Judge Dave Whalin restricted Bello's travel to Kentucky and south Florida without permission of a probation officer. Bello's attorney Kent Westberry, told Whalin that restricting travel completely to south Florida and the Kentucky area "would make it virtually impossible" for his client to operate his tobacco wholesaler business. Whalin set a December 12th trial date. Prosecutors want Bello to forfeit $2 million if he's convicted. Federal investigators have been tracking Bello since at least 2002, when prosecutors in Texas sought to secretly listen to cellphone conversations involving him. He was linked to several large-scale investigations and named in a civil lawsuit brought by the city of New York over untaxed cigarettes, but never charged until the current case.