Okla. cigarettes seized in New York

SENECA FALLS, N.Y. – Federal officials seized more than 500 cases of cigarettes produced and sold by an Oklahoma tribe at an upstate New York service station.

Officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms confiscated the cases of Skydancer cigarettes and $500,000 on Jan. 15 after investigating the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe for not collecting excise taxes on sales to non-tribal citizens. The tribe produces the cigarettes near Grove, Okla., and owns the service station in question where the cigarettes were sold.

Under New York state law, packs of cigarettes are subject to a $4.35 per pack sales tax unless sold to tribal citizens or on tribal land.  In New York City, the rate increases to $5.85 per pack.

No arrests or charges have been filed in the raid.

Earlier this year, the tribe submitted a land-into-trust application for 229 acres in Cayuga and Seneca counties in upstate New York. The service station is on a parcel of land included in the application, which is still pending and has been subject to criticism from local officials, as well as U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“I urge the federal government to oppose any land into trust applications that do not reflect the concerns of local and state officials, businesses and residents who would be adversely affected by the land’s tax-exempt status,” Schumer said Monday. “Communities across Cayuga and Seneca counties have not agreed to this land into trust bid and the Bureau of Indian Affairs must reject it because it would create a checker boarding of jurisdiction, and would harm upstate New York’s local tax base, its businesses, and its future economic development.”

Calls to the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe for comment were not returned.