A federal grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday against a Russell County man accused of selling contraband cigarettes.

David B. Cooper, 46, of Russell Springs, has been charged with conspiracy to engage in contraband cigarette trafficking.

Cooper is accused of selling cigarettes through an unlicensed tobacco distribution company to retail customers, avoiding the payment of $97,487.80 in state excise, sales and use taxes in the process.

From March 2007 to August of that year, Cooper was an operator and part-owner of DS Marketing in Russell Springs, which sold cigarettes by mail order and telephone, according to online federal court records.

A substantial portion of those cigarettes were manufactured by Tantus Tobacco, a Russell Springs company owned and operated by Cooper, the indictment states.

The tax rate on packs of 20 cigarettes is 60 cents, according to the Kentucky Department of Revenue, and the tax is paid through the purchase of stamps from the state revenue department.

The packages sold by Cooper bore no evidence of the state excise tax stamps, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Kentucky.

During the time period of the alleged conspiracy, Cooper defrauded the state of $97,487.80 in taxes, including $43,241.97 involving the sale of unstamped cigarettes manufactured by Tantus Tobacco, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Under federal law, the term “contraband cigarettes” means a quantity of more than 10,000 cigarettes on which taxes have not been paid in the state where the cigarettes are found and that are possessed by someone not authorized by the state or federal government to hold unstamped cigarettes.

The maximum punishment Cooper could receive if convicted at trial is five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Cooper is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 9 in Bowling Green before Magistrate Judge Brent Brennenstuhl.