State seizes truck filled with smokes
BY OMER GILLHAM and CLIFTON ADCOCK World Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
12/17/08 at 2:28 AM
The state has tightened its grip on low-tax cigarettes being sold in high-tax zones by seizing a truck load of cigarettes apparently intended to supply Indian nation smoke shops in the Tulsa area, the Tulsa World has learned.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, working with the Oklahoma Tax Commission, confiscated 51,000 packs of low-tax cigarettes last week that were believed to be headed to the Creek Nation.
The truck was stopped Tuesday, Dec. 9, by troopers on Interstate 40, just west of Warner, said Paula Ross, Oklahoma Tax Commission spokeswoman.
While the Oklahoma Tax Commission could not verify the exact destination of the shipment, troopers discovered notations in the truck that read "Crkwhsle" and Sac and Fox, Ross said.
One of the last times the state seized or attempted to seize cigarettes headed for an Indian smoke shop was in 1993 at the Duck Creek Trading Post on U.S. 75 north of Okmulgee. In that case, state troopers attempted to stop a truck loaded with cigarettes that did not bear an Oklahoma tax stamp. A stand-off ensued after the truck pulled on to Indian land. The stand-off ended without an arrest or injuries.
The Stroud-based Sac and Fox Nation has a tobacco compact with the state and has stores that are authorized to sell low-tax cigarettes. The Creek Nation does not have a compact with the state, but numerous Creek-licensed stores have been able to sell low-tax cigarettes in the past.
Sac and Fox Nation Principal Chief George Thurman did not return a phone message from the Tulsa World. Creek Nation officials were not aware of the situation, a spokesman said.
The name of the wholesaler who supplied the confiscated cigarettes is being kept confidential by the Oklahoma Tax Commission due to tax privacy laws, Ross said.
The cigarettes in question are considered low-tax because they have a 6-cent tax on them. That tax allows border-area tribal smoke shops to compete with their counterparts across the state line.
Non-border smoke shops have until recently had an 86-cent per-pack tax, though new compacts with the Cherokee and Osage nations have lowered the tax. Until recently, border stores sold the low-tax cigarettes to Tulsa-area smoke shops, who resold them to undercut nontribal stores by $3 to $4 a carton.
The state shut down a source for the low-tax cigarettes through the Cherokee- affiliated stores earlier this year. Additionally, the Creek stores were obtaining low-tax cigarettes through the Osage-affiliated stores, according to the World investigation.
But State Treasurer Scott Meacham said that the Osage source is now shut down. On Dec. 8, the Osage Nation signed a tobacco compact with the state that eliminated the low-tax rate and brought a promise by the Osages to not sell cigarettes to the Creeks or other tribes, Meacham said.
"The Osage source is gone to the Creeks and they categorically agreed to not supply cigarettes to other tribes, as well," Meacham said.The state has tightened its grip on low-tax cigarettes being sold in high-tax zones by seizing a truck load of cigarettes apparently intended to supply Indian nation smoke shops in the Tulsa area, the Tulsa World has learned.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, working with the Oklahoma Tax Commission, confiscated 51,000 packs of low-tax cigarettes last week that were believed to be headed to the Creek Nation warehouse.
The truck was stopped Dec. 9, by troopers on Interstate 40, just west of Warner, said Paula Ross, Oklahoma Tax Commission spokeswoman.
While the Oklahoma Tax Commission could not verify the exact destination of the shipment, troopers discovered notations in the truck that read "Crkwhsle" and Sac and Fox, Ross said.
One of the last times the state seized or attempted to seize cigarettes headed for an Indian smoke shop was in 1993 at the Duck Creek Trading Post on U.S. 75 north of Okmulgee. In that case, state troopers attempted to stop a truck loaded with cigarettes that did not bear an Oklahoma tax stamp. A stand-off ensued after the truck pulled on to Indian land. The stand-off ended without an arrest or injuries.
The Stroud-based Sac and Fox Nation has a tobacco compact with the state and has stores that are authorized to sell low-tax cigarettes. The Creek Nation does not have a compact with the state, but numerous Creek-licensed stores have been able to sell low-tax cigarettes in the past.
Sac and Fox Nation Principal Chief George Thurman did not return a phone message from the Tulsa World. Creek Nation officials were not aware of the situation, a spokesman said.
The name of the wholesaler who supplied the confiscated cigarettes is being kept confidential by the Oklahoma Tax Commission due to tax privacy laws, Ross said.
The cigarettes in question are considered low-tax because they have a 6-cent tax on them. That tax allows border-area tribal smoke shops to compete with their counterparts across the state line.
Nonborder smoke shops have until recently had an 86-cent per-pack tax, although new compacts with the Cherokee and Osage nations have lowered the tax. Until recently, border stores sold the low-tax cigarettes to Tulsa-area smoke shops, who resold them to undercut nontribal stores by $3 to $4 a carton.
The state shut down a source for the low-tax cigarettes through the Cherokee- affiliated stores earlier this year. Additionally, the Creek stores were obtaining low-tax cigarettes through the Osage-affiliated stores, according to the World investigation.
But State Treasurer Scott Meacham said that the Osage source is now shut down. On Dec. 8, the governor signed a tobacco compact with the Osage Nation that eliminated the low-tax rate and brought a promise by the Osages to not sell cigarettes to the Creeks or other tribes, Meacham said.
"The Osage source is gone to the Creeks and they categorically agreed to not supply cigarettes to other tribes, as well," Meacham said.
Clifton Adcock 581-8462
clifton.adcock@tulsaworld.com
Omer Gilham 581-8301
omer.gilham@tulsaworld.com
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