The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma ignored warnings about cigarette sales at their Skydancer Smoke Shop in Seneca Falls.
According to the Finger Lakes Times, last May 31st state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman served tribal officials with a “cease and desist’’ order to stop selling untaxed cigarettes. They were also cited for a violation shortly after the store opened in December 2010.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was assigned to the case by U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York William Hochul in response to a complaint that the store was trafficking in untaxed and unstamped cigarettes. Federal officials will not say who filed the complaint.
Photo by Greg Cotterill, Finger Lakes News Radio.
ATF agents raided the store two weeks ago, seized around 800 cases of cigarettes as well as nearly $600,000 in cash from East Bayard Street store and from its bank account at Community Bank. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will likely destroy hundreds of thousands of cigarettes seized in the raid.
The store has not reopened.
