A 22-year-old Hogansburg, N. Y., man faces a charge under the Excise Act 2001 for possession of 200,000 cigarettes not properly stamped after an Ontario Provincial Police officer saw cardboard boxes of contraband cigarettes inside the vehicle at a R. I. D. E. checkpoint.
Officers from the OPP were conducting the R. I. D. E. program in Cornwall with the assistance of officers from the RCMP Cornwall detachment on Thursday. During a vehicle check, an OPP officer observed cardboard boxes of contraband cigarettes in a 2004 Buick Rendezvous. The officer asked the RCMP officers to assist.
The RCMP officers seized 1,000 re-sealable bags of contraband cigarettes believed to have been manufactured in the United States and smuggled into Canada; and the Buick.
The driver was arrested and released to appear at the Cornwall court on Jan. 29 and issued tickets from the OPP for driving while disqualified and failing to produce insurance.
"Law enforcement agencies working together gain more leverage against the criminal organizations who are involved in the illicit tobacco trade", said Sgt. Michael Harvey of the RCMP. "One of the main reasons we are seeing more seizures is because law enforcement on both sides of the border and within Canada are partnering more. We have better integrated intelligence and more integrated operations."