Seneca County supervisors want to know more about the raid last week on the Skydancer Smoke Shop on East Bayard Street in Seneca Falls.
Agents for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided store owned by the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma tribe last week, seizing cartons of cigarette without tax stamps.
Photos by Greg Cotterill, Finger Lakes News Radio.
The supervisor's Indian Affairs Committee Tuesday night discussed issues related to the Seneca Falls-based Cayuga Indian Nation and the Cayuga-Seneca Tribe of Oklahoma. Both have convenience store/gas stations in Seneca Falls that sell cigarettes that do not have tax stamps, meaning the tribes don’t pay federal or state excise taxes on the cigarettes they sell to non-Indians.
Several board members said the ATF should have also seized unstamped cigarettes from the Cayuga Nation store on Route 89. They said they also sell unstamped cigarettes to non-Indians.
The committee said it would write a letter to the ATF, seeking an explanation for the recent raid and suggesting the Cayuga Nation was doing the same thing and should be subject to the same action. They also suggested an ATF official be invited to address the board on the issue.
The store remains closed since the raid last Wednesday.
