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And in the process the state's tax payers have been thoroughly ripped off while a succession of governors have acted as silent partners in these criminal enterprises. Today, however, with a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, we simply can't afford for this fraud to be allowed to continue: "The cost of this trade is considerable: In 2007, New York state and New York City lost more than $850 million in cigarette tax revenue, according to an analysis by , among other brands, shipped to smoke shops in their territories — 6.4 billion in 2007. Each resident — from newborn to nonagenarian — on New York’s 10 reservations would have had to smoke 1,060 cigarettes per day to consume what their smoke shops purchased. The bulk end up sold over the Internet or bootlegged — largely by minivan — to New York City for sale, tax free, in bodegas and on the streets. A low-level smuggler can walk away with up to $7,000 a day." gained notoriety in 2004, after Rodney Morrison — owner of the reservation’s lucrative Peace Pipe Smoke Shop — was charged with firebombing a competitor’s car, beating and robbing another, and financing the murder of a third. A jury found the 41-year-old Costa Rica native not guilty on everything, except for a firearms charge and conspiracy to smuggle untaxed tobacco. He is appealing the conviction, which could net him up to 30 years in prison. Morrison — built like a brick, with a shaved head, owlish coke-bottle glasses, and plenty of — had for years sold millions of cigarettes to smugglers, who turned big profits on New York City streets. In the process he became a multimillionaire, with $30 million tucked away in foreign bank accounts, another $8 million in real estate, and nearly $4.5 million in jewelry, coins, pens, and watches, according to court records ." of New York is extensive indeed: "At the reservation, the shippers stuff as many as 20 cases — 12,000 packs — into black...

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