SQUAXIN ISLAND INDIAN RESERVATION, Wash. -- The 1,000 members of the Squaxin Island Tribe are expanding their cigarette manufacturing operation to national distribution, the Seattle Times reports. The tribe currently manufactures about 50,000 cartons of cigarettes per month and wants to run the plant at its 250,000 cartons per month capacity.

The tribe sells its cigarettes on its reservation and via tribal smoke shops, but would like to reach other venues of distribution. The financial rewards represented by such an expansion would fund tribal programs and provide more income for individual Indians.

"The real business is to go after Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds," Bob Whitener, CEO of Island Enterprises, the tribal government's business arm, told the newspaper. "We don't want to create a single new smoker. But we absolutely want to steal customers from those two manufacturers; we have no guilt about that. Who better than a government that puts the money into child care and police to do this? This isn't a private for-profit operation, it's a government operation."

Meanwhile, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) raided two homes and three tribal smoke shops this week in the Snohomish County area of Washington, the newspaper reports. This was the state's largest raid of allegedly illegal cigarette trafficking since 2003. 

No arrests were made and AFT did not release how much or what kind of contraband was seized.

Both Washington and federal agencies are investigating tribal smoke shops that refuse to collect cigarette taxes. Tribes with negotiated state contracts have to collect the tax, which they can use for tribal services.

Tuesday's raids were a continuation of a 2003 operation that resulted in the seizure of 1.6 million packs from smoke shops in northern Idaho and Washington, said Kelvin Crenshaw, special agent in charge for ATF's Northwest region.