County Honors 
Town, Business 
For Recycling

Tunkhannock Tops Coughlin, 
Gains District Playoff Berth

Wednesday, October 21, 1992 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 3A/10A QUICK WORDS: SKYLINER TRUCK
PLAZA 





Agents search &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Pittston Twptruck plaza &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Federal and state agents close SkyLiner Truck Plaza for most of Tuesday and
cart away boxes of records &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 By CHARLES H. BOGINO &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Times Leader Staff Writer &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 PITTSTON TWP. -- Bruce Douglas went to sleep in the cab of his
tractor-trailer early Tuesday at the SkyLiner Truck Plaza. When he pulled into
the lot near the Pittston and Dupont exit of Interstate 81 after dropping off
a load of soda bottles in Scranton, it was filled with similar trucks. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But when Douglas woke up, they were gone. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I thought World War III had started and nobody'd bothered to tell me,"
said Douglas, 50. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Actually, nobody had bothered to tell the truck driver from Enid, Okla.,
that the State Police and agents from the offices of the Internal Revenue
Service, a U.S. Attorney and the state Attorney General had converged on the
popular truck stop about 9 a.m. and closed it for most of the day. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "One of `em told me that it had something to do with problems with their
taxes, and they seized the place," said Douglas, just before he maneuvered his
rig onto Route 315. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Other drivers standing around near the Sky-Liner Diner next door said they
were told the investigation had to do with fuel taxes, revenues that usually
are earmarked for municipal road projects. The diner was open for business,
and workers there wouldn't confirm the connection with the neighboring fuel
station and motel that were shut down. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Agents wearing blue windbreakers with yellow and white letters that read
"IRS," "PA ATTY GEN" and "SPECIAL AGENT" wouldn't comment as they carried
boxes filled with files from the motel office to a small truck. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 A man who only identified himself as "Steven" later said by phone from the
motel office that the agents came carrying a search warrant, but that he
didn't know why they had raided the plaza. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It didn't say what they were searching for," said Steven, the manager. "It
only said it gave them the right to search." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Earlier in the day, a man wearing a suit who was walking with some of the
agents said simply "Of course" when he was asked by reporters if he had paid
his fuel taxes. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 By late afternoon, the agents had left with the boxes, and the plaza was
allowed to re-open, although it was forbidden to sell diesel fuel. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported that truck stops around the state
were the targets of similar raids. The report said that stations were searched
and their diesel pumps padlocked in Clarion, Erie, Mercer and Westmoreland
counties. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Steven at the SkyLiner Plaza said he'd heard that 30 stations were being
searched. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Steven said it wasn't clear to him who was running the investigation. Even
the investigators didn't seem to know. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 A woman who answered the phone at the state Attorney General Ernie Preate's
office referred all calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Harrisburg. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 A woman who answered the phone there said she had received more than a
half-dozen calls about the investigations. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "No one here seems to know anything about it," said the woman, who refused
to give her name. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Preate's office later said the U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh was in
charge. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Linda Kelly, an assistant U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh, said her office
couldn't comment on the probe and refused to say why the federal attorney from
the western part of the state was handling an investigation in Northeastern
Pennsylvania. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 According to courthouse records, Amarjit S. and Pritam S. Grewal bought the
SkyLiner property last year. Neither of the two, whose address on the deed is
listed as Delaware, N.J., was at the Pittston Township business on Tuesday,
said a man who answered the phone there earlier in the day.

Agents Search Pittston Twp.