(Cornwall, Ontario) On February 27th, 2007, at 9:00 p.m., an off duty RCMP officer from the Central St. Lawrence Valley RCMP Detachment noticed a pick-up truck arrive in Cornwall via the Seaway Bridge. As the truck proceeded northbound on Brookdale Avenue, the rear door of the cab was swinging open and the officer observed numerous cases of contraband cigarettes. The officer then observed the driver of the truck stopping to close the rear door of the truck cab in order to conceal the smuggled tobacco. Subsequently, other officers from the RCMP arrived to stop the truck on Highway 401 just west of the Brookdale Avenue exit. The driver was arrested and the illegal cigarettes and smuggling truck were seized
Located inside the truck were 2,500 re-sealable bags of contraband cigarettes. This represents a total of 500,000 cigarettes that were manufactured in the United States. The driver of the truck, a 20 year old male resident of Broad Street in Lancaster, Ontario was arrested under Section 32(1) of the Excise Act 2001 for possession of a tobacco product that was not properly stamped according to the Excise Act 2001. The truck is owned by a private company located in Lancaster, Ontario.
The most common conveyance of contraband cigarettes in the Seaway Valley is the use of motor vehicles. Often police will observe the illegal cigarettes in plain view when they stop a smuggling vehicle. Organized crime groups do not fear the loss of their commodity due to the high volume of smuggled cigarettes making their way into Canada from the United States. There continues to be a rise in contraband cigarette smuggling throughout Canada.
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Sgt. Michael Harvey
(613)937-2831
Central St. Lawrence Valley RCMP Detachment