Despite outrage from Tonawanda Seneca Indians complaining that their sovereignty was violated, federal authorities offered no apologies Thursday for conducting a raid at the Native American reservation and seizing synthetic marijuana and other merchandise from four smoke shops.
The top local U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent said the man-made pot has been linked to a number of overdoses that have landed young people in hospitals across Western New York.
But Native American merchants and clerks said they thought that the government overreacted by coming in heavily armed in a lightning-fast raid.
"There were more than 30 agents at my business. They held my employees at gunpoint. It was as if my employees were a drug cartel," said Norrie Spring, owner of Sacajawea Smoke Shop in the Genesee County community of Basom.
Dale M. Kasprzyk, resident agent in charge of the DEA's Buffalo office, said, "These drugs are dangerous, and manufactured to replicate marijuana. There have been overdoses and hospitalizations."
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