Tribal leaders accused of smoke-shop tax scam

November 2008, The Herald

By Krista Kapralos

Leaders of the Stillaguamish Indian Tribe lived in luxury for four years while Washington residents were cheated out of more than $25 million that should have been collected as state tax on cigarettes, according to a federal court indictment.

Edward Goodridge Sr., his wife, Linda, and their son, Eddie Goodridge Jr., are accused of making at least $55 million between March of 2003 and May of 2007 by selling tax-free cigarettes at their Blue Stilly Smoke Shop. The elder Goodridge is former chairman of the Stillaguamish Indian Tribe. Eddie Goodridge is the tribe’s executive director.

Sara Milliron Schroedl, a relative of the Goodridge family and one-time tribal councilwoman, also is accused of sharing in the wealth. Read more

Tribal family calls tobacco sales legal

May 2007, The Herald

By Krista Kapralos

ARLINGTON – The Stillaguamish tribal member who manages the Blue Stilly Smoke Shop said Wednesday that he’s done nothing wrong.

That’s why he was surprised when armed federal agents pounded on his door Tuesday morning and ordered him and his family outside while they searched the home for evidence of illegal cigarette sales.

“They thought this place was full of cigarettes, and they found none,” Dean Goodridge, 28, said. “There was no reason for this.” Read more

Stormmy Paul: Businessman, smuggler, ‘Renegade Indian’

April 2008, The Herald

By Krista Kapralos

Stormmy Paul’s home clings to the eastern edge of the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Smoke from his weekly campfire drifts over the reservation’s border with Marysville, across the imaginary place on the road where drivers suddenly realize they’ve left one world for another.

On Wednesday afternoons, Stormmy, a Tulalip Indian, piles black lava rocks in the center of a fire pit and coaxes kindling into hot flames. He gathers the rocks himself from the slopes around Mount St. Helens.

As the rocks start glowing red, cars pull up Stormmy’s driveway. Soon, a group of men huddles around the fire. All but one are white.

They’ve come to sweat in a lodge Stormmy built years ago out of twisted vine maple.

They’ve come to spend time with Stormmy, the Indian.

Stormmy, who stuffed half a million dollars into a

duffel bag and packed it in the trunk of a rental car headed to Miami.

Stormmy, who smuggled millions of knock-off Marlboro and Newport cigarettes into the U.S. and sold them tax-free from Indian smokeshops.

Stormmy, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy for leading, from his Tulalip home, a cigarette smuggling and money-laundering operation that led from Paraguay to China to Arlington.

Stormmy says he’s lived as an Indian should his entire life, even when he was peddling tax-free smokes.

Especially then. Read more