Hood Rich to Real Rich

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32862411

Rodney Morrison was a known drug dealer in the early 90’s. He was convicted and sentenced for the drug related crimes he had committed in New York. After his sentencing he decided to get out of the drug trade and get into the selling of tax-free cigarettes on Indian reservations. MSNBC said that this is a very profitable business that runs an extremely fine line with the law. Ten years into his new found business, Rodney had developed into one of the largest tax free cigarette dealers in New York. With his success came competition and these competitors were also known drug dealers and criminals.

New York is upset with all the tax money they are not getting from the purchasing of tax-free cigarettes. They are losing upwards of 700 million dollars in cigarette revenue each year because Rodney Morrison and other tax-free cigarette companies are bending their states laws in order to make it rich. These companies have been left alone for years for fear of making problems with the local Indian reservations were these companies are located. Rodney and the others have figured out how to get away with selling cigarettes to not only the Indians on the reservation that live there, but illegally to Non-Native Americans living outside these reservations. The tax free organizations on these reservations were intended to only benefit the local Indians living on these reservations. The particular reservation were Rodney has located his business is only 55 acres and has only 300 people living on it. It has around twelve or so tax-free cigarette shops on it, and these shops sell a large amount of the total cigarettes sold throughout New York. Rodney alone has made $172 million in less than five years. This is going on because states can’t collect taxes on Indian land. This can cut the price of cigarettes’ nearly in half in New York. Since it is so much cheaper to buy cigarettes from Indian reservations, cigarette stores are buying up large quantities of their products and selling them elsewhere illegally.

My first thoughts were that I couldn’t believe that New York or any other state would let any type of shady business like this survive. They all know that this is a profitable way to make large amounts of money under the radar. I don’t understand why any state government would be afraid of a small Indian reservations wrath, especially when they are performing illegal activity.
I reacted this way because I think New York and other states need to take a stronger stand against the unlawful use of Indian reservations. These tax-free cigarette businesses are getting away with making millions with little to no profit to the state governments. I believe that is taking money out of each of the residents living in these particular starts hands. On top of that, these are known criminals running these businesses.

If it’s not a casino, it’s a cigarette company. How long is our government going to let this go on?