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14 charged with cigarette smuggling  

Federal prosecutors in Alexandria charged 14 people Thursday with paying money or trading guns and drugs to purchase 388,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes intended for sale in New York. . . .

Two people were also charged with agreeing to hire a hit man to kill a man and his wife who were believed to be stealing some of the cigarettes.

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Obama promises Native Americans place on agenda  

President Obama pledged Thursday to redeem broken promises made to American Indians, saying he's empathetic because of his own history as an "outsider."

"Few have been more marginalized and ignored by Washington for as long as Native Americans, our first Americans," Obama said in opening the White House Tribal Nations Conference.

"I know what it means to feel ignored and forgotten, and what it means to struggle," he said. "So you will not be forgotten as long as I'm in this White House."

The administration invited representatives from the 564 federally recognized tribes to participate in the conference, the first White House meeting of its kind since 1994. Leaders from nearly 400 tribes attended. The event came as some American Indians are locked in a long-standing legal battle with the federal government over land royalties.

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• Closing the tobacco loopholes 

EU finance ministers will next week (11 November) try to agree an increase in the minimum rates of excise duty on cigarettes and other tobacco products.

The proposal under discussion would raise the minimum excise rate to €90 per 1,000 cigarettes, compared to €64 today. The legislation would also close loopholes that have allowed companies to market cigarettes as cigars and cigarillos, and some fine-cut tobacco as pipe tobacco. Tobacco companies have exploited these loopholes to benefit from lower tax rates applied to those products. . . .

It said that these variations were a stimulus to illegal cross-border trade, as it was often cheaper for people to buy cigarettes that had been smuggled in from other EU countries than to buy those legally for sale. The Commission said that this trade undermined government attempts to

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• Seneca educates lawmakers on treaty rights, tobacco economy  

State lawmakers at a public hearing heard claims of "lost" tax revenues ranging from tens of millions to billions of dollars from untaxed cigarette sales on Indian reservations.

While none of the witnesses backed up their claims with substantive evidence, the Seneca Nation of Indians presented officials with a three-inch thick document on its treaty rights, legal history, and an economic study by a Harvard economist that pinpointed how - and how much - the nation's tobacco-based economy benefits the state.

The hearing, which was chaired by Sen. Craig Johnson, D-N.Y., was an all day - and sometimes heated - event at Manhattan Community College Oct. 27. The aim was to investigate why the state has failed in its attempts to collect cigarette taxes from reservation cigarette sales to non-Natives.

J.C. Seneca, a Seneca Nation tribal councilor, testifying on behalf of the nation, addressed that question at the beginning of his testimony.

"The answer to that question, put simply, is that your government has no authority to do so,

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• Seneca Nation of Indians president to meet with Obama today  

Seneca President Barry E. Snyder Sr. will travel to Washington, D.C. to participate in a first-of-its-kind national Indian nations conference to be staged by President Barack Obama. The all-day conference will take place today.

"During his 2008 presidential campaign Obama promised to go beyond a government-to-government relationship with Native Americans and create a nation-to-nation relationship. This conference indicates he is interested in giving nations a true voice," President Snyder said. "I look forward to taking part in this critical dialogue."

In October 2008, Obama pledged, if elected, he would appoint an American Indian policy advisor to his senior White House staff and would host an annual tribal leadership conference. . . .

In recent weeks, the Seneca Nation has made a strong stance against renewed efforts by some New York State elected officials to collect taxes on tribal tobacco sales. The Senecas have reiterated their position that long-standing federal treaties prohibit states and other governments from taxing Indian nations. The Senecas are also looking for federal assistance to overturn the Kempthorne policy which prohibits off-reservation gaming.

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RCMP seize contraband cigarettes 

Portage la Prairie RCMP seized some contraband cigarettes on Monday.

At about 1:30 a.m., a Portage RCMP member was patrolling the Trans-Canada Highway near Angle Road in Portage when a 1996 Ford Windstar van from British Columbia was observed traveling westbound.

RCMP noted the vehicle was missing the rear bumper and a tie-down strap was hanging out the back of the van. The vehicle was stopped for the equipment violation when police were able to observe a large quantity of cigarettes in the rear of the vehicle.

The driver of the vehicle was arrested under the Federal Excise Act and the vehicle was searched, resulting in the seizure of 12 cases of contraband cigarettes, each containing 50 cartons of cigarettes totaling 120,000 cigarettes.

The value of the contraband cigarettes is estimated at $24,000.

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Contraband cigarettes seized 

An Ontario man is facing charges in Manitoba after he was found to be transporting contraband cigarettes.

The man was arrested Monday afternoon when he was stopped by a police officer for an equipment violation on his van, RCMP said.

The officer was patrolling the Trans-Canada Highway near Angle Road in Portage la Prairie at around 1:30 p.m. when he noticed the van was missing the rear bumper and a tie down strap was hanging out the back.

When he approached the van, the officer noticed a large quantity of cigarettes in the rear of the vehicle, RCMP said.

The driver, a 31-year-old man from Ontario who currently lives in British Columbia, was arrested under the Federal Excise Act, and the vehicle was searched.

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• Indonesia Seeks to Clear the Air Over US Kretek Ban  

Burned by the recent US ban on kretek cigarettes, Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said government officials would soon meet with their US counterparts in an effort to alleviate smoldering tension over the issue.

Kretek cigarettes were banned by the US Food and Drug Administration on Sept. 21 on the grounds that their sweet flavor encouraged young people to take up smoking.

“We will arrange a meeting and will be having consultations to seek a fair solution to this matter,” Mari told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.

The discussions, Mari said, are a preliminary response, but if no solution is found, then “at the end, it will be taken to the World Trade Organization.”

Mari said previously that the ban was highly detrimental to this country’s clove farmers and was in breach of WTO rules. . . .

Kretek International is apparently not going to take the issue lying down and is now seeking a declaratory ruling from the US District Court in Washington that its cigars are not cigarettes and can therefore be freely sold.

In its petition, it accused the FDA of “deliberately obfuscating” the definition of cigarette,” adding that “If a product is a cigar, it is not a cigarette, and vice versa.”

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Smoking charge questioned for Newport News man  

NEWPORT NEWS - The good news for Jarry K. Ratliff is that he might avoid the $25 fine he faces for smoking in a local McDonald's last week.

The bad news? He still faces armed robbery, abduction and gun charges that could land him in prison for a long time.

Ratliff, 27, a McDonald's employee, was discovered as a fugitive Oct. 26. That came after a Newport News police officer at the drive-through of McDonald's, on Jefferson Avenue in Denbigh, spotted Ratliff lighting up a cigarette inside.

In issuing Ratliff a smoking summons, Officer Matthew Andreoli and Sgt. Daniel Butler ran Ratliff's name through a national database of fugitives, finding he was wanted in an armed robbery outside a Norfolk motel in 2004.

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Illegal tobacco raid ‘too soon’  

Investigators acted prematurely in raiding a warehouse in Co Louth that had just accepted part of a consignment of 120m illegal cigarettes last week, a security source has claimed.

Suspects were not given time to unload or examine the haul, which was hidden inside bales of animal feed, the security source said. When gardai and customs officers entered, the suspects indicated that they did not know anything about the contraband, which remained hidden.

Security sources fear any gap in the chain of evidence could hinder any possible prosecutions.

There may have been other operational reasons for the timing of the raid. A spokesman for the Revenue Commissioners said that it was not policy to comment on operational matters.

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Crackdown on counterfeit and underage tobacco sales 

TRADING Standards has vowed to stamp down on counterfeit cigarettes and underage sales following the conviction of a man who sold fake cigarettes to kids from his ice cream van.

Anthony Thomas Wharton pleaded guilty at Furness Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to selling counterfeit cigarettes and unauthorised use of a trademark following a Trading Standards investigation.

The court was told that Wharton, 61, had targeted children from his ice cream van, selling counterfeit Regal cigarettes at �3.50 a packet.

Wharton, of Marsden Street, Barrow, was given a 12-month community order, requiring him to do 60-hours of unpaid work and pay �350 costs to Cumbria County Council.

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• 800 million black market cigs smuggled in each year  

THE true number of cigarettes imported illegally into Ireland is more than 800 million a year, it is claimed.

Revenue and gardai seized a haul of 120 million cigarettes in Greenore, Co Louth, worth an estimated €50m this week.

Yet the average penalty for trading in illegal cigarettes -- €423-- is "farcical" and should be increased, a TD said.

"The Government must send a message to the middlemen who trade illegally in tobacco by imposing hefty fines," said Fine Gael justice spokesman, Charlie Flanagan.

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Hazy: Montana’s Smoking Ban Doesn’t Apply to Tribal Venues  

RONAN - Enforcement of Montana's Clean Air Act appears to be a little hazy on Indian reservations.

Tribally owned casinos are exempt from the indoor-smoking ban, while some enrolled tribal members who own reservation bars and casinos aren't enforcing the ban.

In the meantime, Rick and Vicki Wheeler, who are not members of the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribes, recently received their first letter of complaint from the Lake County Health Department for not enforcing the smoking ban at their Ronan business, The Club, which is within the Flathead Indian Reservation.

"Ninety percent of my customers smoke," said Rick Weaver, who has owned The Club for 20 years. "This bar is my retirement -- do they want to take that away from me, too? It's racial discrimination."

Diana Schwab, the tobacco prevention coordinator in Lake County, agrees the law raises different issues on the state's reservations.

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Leaf groups seek challenge of Canadian law 

Tobacco advocates are seething over a new Canadian law they claim will snuff out sales of cigarettes packed with U.S. burley, and they are fighting back to protect their export sales.

They are asking U.S. trade officials to take their complaints to the World Trade Organization, hoping to pressure the Canadians into protecting burley from the tobacco crackdown. They also want to head off the spread of similar laws to other foreign markets that are crucial consumers of American leaf.

Export markets are "absolutely critical" to the tobacco industry, and a spread of similar laws to other countries "could have an absolutely devastating economic impact" on the sector, said Erica Peterson, executive vice president of the North Carolina Agribusiness Council.

The Canadian law won final approval this month. It is meant to curtail youth smoking in part by banning the sale of tobacco scented with fruit and candy flavors. U.S. tobacco supporters complain that the law overreached to cover American burley, which is laced with flavors to smooth its harsh taste.

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• COOPER: State AG cracks down on illegal cigarette sales  

You may have seen recent news reports about Tennessee’s effort to stop the illegal sale of cigarettes that are removed from the pack and sold individually as “loosies.” . . .

Cigarette manufacturers who choose not to participate in the MSA must comply with state law requiring payment into an escrow fund from which the state can seek payment for certain judgments or settlements it obtains against those manufacturers. This year, my office filed suit and obtained a $1.2 million judgment against a Brazilian cigarette manufacturer for failing to make required payments. There are other pending cases against cigarette manufacturers in Canada and Indonesia, a Native American tribe in Oklahoma, and a South Carolina cigarette wholesaler.

The Internet poses another challenge to stopping illegal cigarette sales. My office sued two Internet cigarette vendors for selling cigarettes to Tennesseans in violation of state law. We also negotiated settlements in a number of cases resulting from illegal internet sales.

The effort to crack down on illegal cigarette sales is a team effort. The General Assembly has strengthened laws to discourage sales to minors and ensure that the state is able to collect money owed from cigarette sales. The Departments of Health, Agriculture, and Commerce and Insurance are working with my office in the effort to stop the sale of single cigarettes. The office of the Attorney General has a separate division dedicated to diligent enforcement of the MSA and related laws which works closely with the Department of Revenue.

My office is participating in a new working group on youth tobacco prevention to improve coordination among different agencies, pursue smoking prevention initiatives, and raise awareness of the health risks associated with youth tobacco use. This group will promote the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout on November 19, 2009 which is aimed at getting smokers to quit.

Hopefully, these efforts will help to discourage young people from using tobacco, help smokers quit, and take some of the profits out of the illicit cigarette trade.

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