NEW YORK (AP) – A federal judge has rebuked a Buffalo delivery company accused of shipping tons of untaxed cigarettes to New York City residents in violation of federal law.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman issued an order Tuesday barring Regional Integrated Logistics from transporting any cigarettes that don't bear city and state tax stamps. Ruling in a civil racketeering suit brought by the City of New York, the judge said the shipments were illegal, and said there was strong evidence the company knew it was handling contraband.

Lawyers for the company didn't immediately respond to phone messages.

The city's chief lawyer, Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, said the ruling was an “important success in the legal battle against untaxed cigarettes.”

“Delivery services must now be aware that they can be held liable in civil and criminal actions for transporting untaxed cigarettes,” he said, adding that the city intended to aggressively exploit the ruling to choke off the flow of untaxed cigarettes into the city.

The city sued Regional Integrated Logistics last spring, claiming it had knowingly be transporting untaxed cigarettes sold over the Internet by a business based in Salamanca, in Seneca nation territory, and owned by a member of the tribe.

State law allows some reservation-based businesses to sell tobacco tax free, but dictates that taxes be paid on any cigarettes shipped off a reservation to people who aren't members of a tribe.

That business, called All of Our Butts, was also named in the lawsuit and covered by the judge's order, but its lawyers filed court papers earlier this spring saying their clients had gone out of business and weren't paying their legal bills.