Labeling the Poospatuck Indian reservation a “tax evasion haven,” New York City’s lead attorney in a lawsuit against smoke shops on the Mastic reservation yesterday estimated that Suffolk is losing $21 million in local sales tax revenue to illegal bootlegging.

Eric Proshansky, a deputy city corporation counsel made the estimate before county lawmakers approved a resolution directing the county attorney to piggyback onto the city lawsuit against the reservation’s seven smoke shops.

The vote, came despite a statement from Harry Wallace, the chief of the Unkechaug tribe, asking lawmakers not to join the city suit claiming the tribe is being made “a scapegoat for the state economic ills.”

Proshansky and Edward Helig, chief of the Suffolk district attorney’s economic crimes unit, said nearly 10 million cartons of untaxed cigarettes are illegally sold at the reservation without charging state city and county taxes. The law only allows tax-free cigarettes to be sold to the 279 tribal members living on the reservation, not outsiders.