Seneca businessman charged in contraband cigarette case
BY: Dan Herbeck
Published: September 28, 2012, 11:40 PM
Updated: September 28, 2012, 11:40 PM
Federal prosecutors in Missouri have charged a prominent Seneca Nation businessman with making illegal deals to buy nearly $500,000 worth of untaxed cigarettes from an undercover agent from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.
William F. "Willie" Parry, who operates the popular Wolf's Run store in Irving, has been charged with a felony count of wire fraud, according to court documents obtained Friday by The Buffalo News.
Federal agents spent several hours conducting a court-authorized raid Wednesday at Wolf's Run, which is located on Route 438 in Erie County, on the Seneca's Cattaraugus Reservation.
"I plan to fight the charges ... there will be no plea deal," Parry, 51, said in an interview.
Although a federal government spokesman told reporters Wednesday that no one was criminally charged, The News learned Friday of the felony charge against Parry. The businessman made a brief appearance in Buffalo's federal court before Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr.
Schroeder released Parry without bail but ordered him to appear in a federal court in Kansas City, Mo., no later than Oct. 11. The judge also ordered Parry to turn in any firearms he owns and prohibited him from buying any new firearms.
According to a criminal complaint filed by prosecutors from Kansas City, Parry is accused of taking part in two illegal business deals with an ATF agent who was posing as a dealer of untaxed cigarettes.
On Dec. 16, 2011, the undercover agent delivered 140 cases of "unstamped" - or untaxed - cigarettes to a warehouse building owned by Parry in Irving.