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TAHLEQUAH, OK - The Cherokee Nation Marshals recently arrested two suspects for stealing irrigation pipe from Cherokee Nation property in Delaware County. Four additional suspects are expected to face charges for their cooperation in the crime.

“We are taking it seriously,” said David Roberts, director of the Marshal Service. “It is a federal offense. We will not let them steal our property.”

The suspects removed the irrigation pipe from the Cherokee Nation property that was once the home of the Cherokee Nation Hog Farm. The irrigation pipe, valued at over $4000, had remained on the property since the hog farm closed almost ten years ago. The suspects chopped the pipe into small pieces and transported it in a pick-up truck to the Friendship Homes Incorporated recycling center in Jay, Oklahoma, where they sold it at a rate of $.10 per pound before being caught.

Two of the suspects, David Lee Taylor of Kansas, Okla. and Sam Davis of Kenwood, are expected to go to trial soon, but the date has not yet been set. They will be tried in the United States District Federal Court on the charges of stealing from an Indian tribal organization, which carries a maximum penalty of $5000 in fines and up to five years in a federal prison.

“They will probably serve 24 to 48 months if convicted, and they probably will be,” said Vince Smith, a sergeant with the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service.