Center for Tobacco Products News

By OMER GILLHAM World Staff Writer
Published: 12/15/2010  2:30 AM
Last Modified: 12/15/2010  4:22 AM

BIXBY – State troopers stopped a tribal truck in Bixby on Tuesday, seizing more than $150,000 in contraband cigarettes, an official said.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol pulled over a delivery van believed to be owned by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, said Paula Ross, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Tax Commission.

Ross said the van was carrying cigarettes without an Oklahoma state tax stamp.

“The cigarettes are deemed contraband because they are not part of the MSA (approved) list of cigarettes for sale in Oklahoma,” Ross said.

MSA stands for the Master Settlement Agreement, which lists approved cigarettes for sale in Oklahoma. Ross said seized cigarettes are typically destroyed and not returned to the owner.

The confiscation of alleged contraband cigarettes came one day after the World reported that smoke shops affiliated with the Creek Nation have a pattern of selling cigarettes without a state tax stamp.

The Creek Nation could not be reached for comment.

The seizure comes two days after the World reported that a federal indictment involving cigarette trafficking and fraud had been dismissed against cigarette wholesaler Gary Lester Hall and seven other defendants, according to U.S. District Court in Kansas records.

In February, the Tax Commission seized 77 cases of Seneca brand cigarettes, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Tulsa County District Court.

Seneca brand cigarettes are manufactured in Canada by a tribal entity and shipped to Creek smoke shops, tax officials have said.

In February, the cigarettes were headed to Riverside Smokeshop in Tulsa and had a value of $103,000 once sold to the public.

The Creek Nation does not have a tobacco compact with the state and remains in a legal battle about a disagreement over appropriate payments to the state in lieu of taxes, the World has reported.

In July, a federal appeals court ruled that the Tax Commission can continue to seize alleged contraband cigarettes shipped by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

The tribe sued the Tax Commission last year in U.S. District Court after two shipments of tobacco bound for tribal smoke shops, about $100,000 worth, were seized by the commission with the help of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. The sale of the tobacco would have resulted in about $42,000 in lost taxes, according to the tax commission.

Original Print Headline: Official: Illegal cigarettes seized

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20101215_11_A11_BIXBYS673850