An elderly former upstate Mohawk chief who once ran on an anti-drug platform in a tribal election has just been charged with ecstasy-trafficking in New York City.
Federal agents last week busted Native American honcho Philip Tarbell after he allegedly tried to sell $60,000 worth of the psychedelic drug — stashed in a candy box — to an undercover officer near JFK Airport.
He had already pleaded guilty to peddling marijuana last year.
In the most recent case, Tarbell — who once served as chief of the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation — met the undercover officer in a Queens motel parking lot near the airport, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn.
Tarbell offered to supply future, even larger drug shipments containing thousands of ecstasy pills and hundreds of pounds of marijuana, prosecutors said.
The undercover officer secretly recorded the meeting on a hidden-wire tape recorder, Assistant US Attorney Steven Tiscione told a Brooklyn federal judge.
At the time of his arrest, Tarbell was out on bail and awaiting sentencing in the marijuana case.