United States Ninth Circuit

In a prosecution that resulted in convictions of four members of an Indian tribe for crimes arising from an eight-year period of trafficking "contraband cigarettes," the district court's denial of the defendants' motion to dismiss the indictment is affirm in parted, reversed in part, and the case remanded for resentencing, where: 1) during the period from 2003 to 2005, when the defendants were licensed to sell tobacco by the Swinomish Tribe, there were no "applicable State or local cigarette taxes" under the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act (CCTA), so the cigarettes sold were not contraband during that period; 2) the five-year statute of limitations for CCTA violations barred any charges based on activity from 1999 to 2003; and 3) after their tribal tobacco license expired in 2005, the defendants' activities violated the CCTA.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/06/2012
• Published 04/06/2012

Judges

• W. Fletcher

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James E. Lobsenz, Helen J. Brunner