Mohawk reservation still a soft spot for cigarette smuggling BY MICHAEL HILL The Associated Press
AKWESASNE, Ontario — Mohawk police spotted a red van with swiped license plates riding through the reservation on a recent night looking like it was loaded down with something heavy. It was. After a brief pursuit, the offi cer pulled over a vehicle that smelled like a humidor. Garbage bags packed with more than a ton of golden cut tobacco filled the back from floor to ceiling. Another night, another illegal load of tobacco headed to Canada from the United States through this Mohawk reservation. Akwesasne, which stretches south into New York state, is by far the busiest spot for cigarette smuggling along the northern border. While the U.S.-Canada border runs some 4,000 miles through mountains, plains and some of the largest freshwater lakes on the planet, the security challenges posed by Akwesasne are unique. A bit smaller than the Bronx, the reservation straddles New York state, Quebec and Ontario and is sliced by the St. Lawrence River. Border crossers here pass through land controlled by four distinct governments: New York state, U.S.-side Mohawks, Canadian-side Mohawks and Ontario. This geopolitical complexity has helped make Akwesasne a go-to gateway for smugglers at least since Prohibition. Right now, cigarette smuggling is big. “They take advantage of the geography and the jurisdictional nightmare,” said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Michael Harvey. Tobacco smuggling caught on after Canadian officials boosted cigarette taxes in 2001 to combat smoking. Criminals can sneak in their own cigarettes and retail them for as little as $10 a carton, compared to $80 or more for legal cartons. Mounties are seizing almost 17 times more tobacco than in 2001. Last year, they seized 472,000 cartons across Canada — 90 percent originating from this Mohawk reservation. Harvey said the tobacco is trucked north to the territory, where factories on the American side of the reservation, known as St. Regis, can pump out millions of cigarettes a year. Others simply smuggle bulk tobacco through the reservation, presumably to be made into cigarettes up north. Sneaking the goods into Canada is a cat-and-mouse game. Smugglers zip across the river at night in low-profile duck boats with no lights to the Ontario portion of the reservation, which is an island. Then they can take a bridge to Cornwall, Ontario. Or they can boat a dozen miles down-river to any number of coves or marinas on the Canadian shore. In winter, they can drive trucks or snowmobiles over the ice. Once in mainland Canada, it’s an easy drive to Montreal, Ottawa or Toronto. The contraband cigarettes, often sold at “smoke shacks” on Indian land in Canada, look like any other, except without labels or boxes. They are packed parallel in clear plastic resealable bags. Harvey said the Canadian-based organized crime groups behind tobacco smuggling will sometimes bring ecstasy or hockey bags full of marijuana back down to the United States. Still, it does not appear U.S. officials view Akwesasne as a comparable floodgate for illegal immigrants, drugs or money — which are their primary U.S. northern border concerns. U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Mark Henry said Akwesasne is a geographic challenge, but it is among several that agents focus on in their Northeast patrols. The Border Patrol does not keep seizure figures for Akwesasne. But the agency’s Swanton sector — which stretches 295 miles from northern New York to New Hampshire — last year made 1,119 arrests for alien smuggling, a bit less than one in five of all such arrests along the northern border. Chief Andrew Thomas of the St. Regis Tribal Police said smugglers exploit opportunities wherever they find them and the reservation’s reputation as a “gateway” is unwarranted. “That happens here, that happens points east, that happens points west,” he said. “We seem to get all the attention.” Thomas has 16 officers to patrol the American side of the reservation, a flatland of woods, fields, modest houses and a bunch of gas stations that can sell tax-free fuel and cigarettes. Thomas said tobacco is “not a high priority with my agency.” In his view, cigarette smuggling would disappear overnight if Canada would simply lower tobacco taxes. “We have smuggling issues that my office focuses on, and that’s the drug trade, weapons and illegal immigrants and illegal aliens,” Thomas said. “Those are the real criminal issues that we deal with.” Law enforcement officials say Mohawk authorities on both sides of the border routinely cooperate in crackdown efforts, which are aggressive. Mounties have seized dozens of smugglers’ pickup trucks and minivans (many with back seats removed to make room for more product ) this year alone. This summer, they teamed up with the U.S. Coast Guard to patrol the river under a pilot project called Shiprider. On the U.S. side, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it has seized 16 tractor loads of tobacco headed to Akwesasne in the past 18 months. But police actions involving Akwesasne can still be complicated by jurisdictional issues. Many Mohawks remain deeply connected to their land and sovereign heritage, a point of view summed up by a prominent banner hanging along the main highway here reading: “This is Mohawk Land Not NYS Land.” Consider that the St. Regis Tribal Council, the American-side government, lists six factories registered with the tribe to manufacture cigarettes, but there appears to only be one with federal approval.
The day the government placed such high taxes on cigarettes along with unrealistic laws and restrictions...they had to know that this was going to happen. I know people who are buying their cigarettes from overseas. So now it costs the taxpayers even more money to pay for the xtra personel needed to track the black market on cigarettes. The government sets the law in place and we the tax payer has to pay to patrol it! Rediculous!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Ask your grocer to reduce promotion of tobacco products
Nov. 15 was the 31st Great American Smokeout. On this day, I witnessed Capital Region grocery store customers sign 3,000 postcards and petitions asking stores to make tobacco advertising and tobacco products less visible to young people. This is a way to decrease the attractiveness of smoking and to protect them from the often fatal effects of lifetime tobacco use. As a customer, you can voice your concern to stores that have tobacco advertising by asking them to please remove or rearrange their tobacco ads. These ads lure individuals, most often children, to begin smoking in the fi rst place. Together we can address the issue of smoking where it starts — with advertising. Please be a voice to retailers to protect our children and make tobacco advertising and tobacco product placement less visible in stores. Adult customers who smoke will still be able to obtain tobacco products. Change can simply start with just relocating tobacco products and sales to the customer service desk. SUE ARMINIO Amsterdam The writer is program coordinator for Project ACTION of Hamilton, Fulton & Montgomery Counties.
Like this is going to help. Remember all of the anti-drug ads that were all over TV? Ya know the ones that showed an egg in a frying pan and it said, 'this is your brain...this is your brain on drugs'. Well....we still have a drug problem don't we? All the way up to the Schenectady PD, and to our presidential candidates! People are still going to do what they want...legal or illegal. IDIOTS!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
NEW YORK — The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which has been under intense pressure from antismoking groups and members of Congress over print ads for its cigarettes, said Tuesday it would not advertise its brands in newspapers or consumer magazines next year. The company had been criticized sharply for both its colorful and feminine Camel No. 9 ads, which appeared in fashion magazines and were seen as cynically aimed at young women, and also for a recent ad in Rolling Stone. R.J. Reynolds spokeswoman Jan Smith said the decision had actually been made in late September or early October and was unrelated to the Rolling Stone controversy. The Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which has long protested the Camel ads, called the company’s decision “more a strategy to deflect criticism than a real change in marketing.” Matthew Myers, president of the group, said it was unfortunate that R.J. Reynolds had not committed to permanently stop print advertising. Smith said the company, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., would make decisions about future years at a later time. A number of magazines refuse to accept tobacco ads, including Self, Men’s Health and Money, according to the Tobacco-Free Periodicals Project.
Supermarkets should stop selling cigarettes LISABETH A. MANY Albany
It’s about time that, as a community, we begin to confront and act on tobacco advertising and location in our grocery stores. Many smaller businesses and large corporations are signing policies refusing to accept financial benefits from the tobacco industry. In the case of smaller businesses, this funding could be a huge financial aid; however, they are able to comprehend all the negative effects tobacco advertising has on easily influenced youth in their communities. I find it extremely unlikely that chain grocery stores, such as Price Chopper and Hannaford in our area, rely on cigarette sales to heighten their estimated $2.5 billion annual revenue. Will the movement of cigarettes to an unseen location and the removal of advertisements have a great impact on these companies’ annual revenue? I highly doubt it. In my opinion, buying wine in a grocery store as opposed to a liquor store makes more sense. Perhaps we should just stop selling cigarettes in our grocery stores altogether and instead open cigarette shops.
My point exactly! All of these new government programs, including universal health care, and they anticipate using the cigarette tax. How lame is that? And on the flip side, there are 'no smoking' programs everywhere! NUTS!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Stores that sell tobacco shouldn’t display it quite so prominently
Wegman’s Food Markets, a grocery store chain anchored in the Rochester/ Buffalo/ Syracuse area with over 71 stores in five states and over 37,000 employees (many under the age of 21), has made a decision to stop selling tobacco in their stores as of Feb. 10. As a parent of two small boys, I applaud Wegman’s for making such a proactive decision toward health. As a parent, I would love to see our local grocery store chains, such as Price Chopper and Hannaford, make similar decisions. I wonder if our local grocery stores have ever thought about the sale and use of tobacco, and how it fits the image of healthy living or eating. Sadly, no one reaps any benefits from using tobacco in any form. It’s not meant to heal sickness or wounds, it’s not meant to give you energy or boost metabolism, it’s certainly not meant to increase your life span. There really are no positive effects for anyone who uses tobacco. Of course, tobacco use is a personal choice, and tobacco sales can be profi table for businesses; but once again, it doesn’t seem to fit the image of promoting healthy living or eating. If stores like Price Chopper and Hannaford chose to continue to sell tobacco products, that is their right. I just hope they would they at least consider putting the products behind the customer service desk, where people, especially children, don’t have to look at it at the end of the checkout lines. I am a dedicated shopper at my local Price Chopper, and believe it is a fine place to do business. I think that they are extremely philanthropic and are more than generous to our local communities, organizations, athletic teams and charities. They have helped countless individuals, families and organizations, and should be repeatedly commended for their graciousness. But I believe that even just moving tobacco or displays to a more secure, less public location, would warrant these businesses another well-deserved feather in their cap. DENISE BENTON Gloversville
State mounts $800G campaign to discourage smoking in films Tuesday, February 19, 2008 The Associated Press
NEW YORK — New York health officials don’t want kids to imitate celebrities who smoke in movies, and they’re spending $800,000 trying to change the way movies are rated when actors light up. With full page ads in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the state Health Department is encouraging the movie industry to consider smoking — along with nudity and violence — when applying ratings. State Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines thinks cigarettes merit an ’R’ rating, restricting children under 18. Daines wrote to the chief executive officers of six major motion picture studios and to the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, asking them to reduce childrens’ exposure to smoking on-screen.
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