OTTAWA — Cigarette smuggling along the St. Lawrence River has expanded to such a high volume that police have now seized a dump truck and campers modified to smuggle thousands of cartons at a time.

Smugglers bring the cigarettes across the river in boats, and are either renting shoreline homes or using vacant summer cottages to pack it into trucks and vans for shipment across Canada, RCMP Sgt. Michael Harvey said Wednesday.

Since Sept. 15 the Cornwall Regional Task Force has seized 5.2 million smuggled cigarettes (about 26,000 cartons) and 20 vehicles including one dump truck and three campers, he said. The campers were gutted in order to carry 2,000 cartons of cigarettes, worth about $22 each to the smugglers.

They charged 19 people with smuggling. They also seized five boats and a variety of boat trailers, cars and boat motors.

And no sooner had the police put out a press release on the arrests then they made four more seizurers on Tuesday night — including 13 hockey bags full of cigarettes at a soccer field.

“They’re just using the land,” Harvey said. “Whatever the geography is, they use it. And marijuana and ecstasy are going back down the other way (south), so our American partners are busy too.

“And now these modified trucks — that’s a few that (police) have seized this year.”

He said the smuggling business is growing.

“This tobacco makes its way across Canada from coast to coast. We’re starting to see more seizures now in Nova Scotia,” although small smoke shops in central Canada are still the main market.

Trucks and campers hide the cigarettes better than cars because they don’t have as many windows, he said.

Harvey said there’s an increase in smuggling through marinas in the area. Police are asking anyone who notices suspicious activity to contact the Cornwall Regional Task Force at (613) 937-2800 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.