Thursday, October 23, 2008

U.S. v. Fiander (9th Cir. - Oct. 23, 2008)

Contraband cigarette trafficking. It still exists. And while we can't charge members of the Yakima tribe (up in Washington) with substantive violations of the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act for not getting shipments approved in advance, we can, the Ninth Circuit held, charge them with a RICO conspiracy. At least when they conspire with people who aren't members of the Yakima Nation.

Interesting stuff. Both factually as well as legally.