April 10, 2007
(Cornwall, Ontario) On April 5th, 2007, at 1:43 a.m., an officer from the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service followed a rented truck pulling a 2007 Trailer Haul utility trailer from Cornwall Island in Akwesasne, Ontario. The officer stopped the truck and trailer on Brookdale Avenue in Cornwall and questioned the driver. The driver admitted he was picking up the fully loaded trailer for a friend but he did not know what was inside the trailer. The Central St. Lawrence Valley RCMP Detachment was contacted and a search of the trailer under authority of the Customs Act was conducted. Officers found the trailer to be loaded with contraband cigarettes as well as a stun gun. Both the driver and passenger were arrested and the smuggling vehicles were seized.
Located inside the utility trailer were 2,400 re-sealable bags of contraband cigarettes. This represents a total of 480,000 cigarettes that were manufactured in the United States and smuggled into Canada. The driver, a 44 year old male resident of Kahnawake, Quebec, was arrested and will be charged 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. He will also be charged for carrying a prohibited weapon pursuant to Section 86(1) of the Criminal Code. The passenger, a 34 year old female resident of Saint-Laurent Street in Montreal, Quebec was also arrested and faces charges under the Excise Act 2001. Both were released and will appear at the Cornwall Provincial Court on May 31st, 2007. The pick-up truck was a rental truck from a Montreal area rental agency. The utility trailer is registered to a 20 year old female resident of Easton Street in Cornwall, Ontario.
The officers from the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service are the front line officers who continue to enforce any illegal activities that they observe along the international border shared by Canada and the United States on the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory. The RCMP will continue to assist all law enforcement agencies to ensure that smugglers will face appropriate charges under the Excise Act 2001. Our common goal is to ensure that our communities remain safe from the illegal activities of organized crime groups.
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Sgt. Michael Harvey
(613)937-2831
Central St. Lawrence Valley RCMP Detachment
Chief of Police Lewis Mitchell
(613)575-2340
Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service