Canadian police arrest dozens in tobacco smuggling raid
The group's reach extended to Europe and South America, police said.
MONTREAL (AFP) - Canadian police on Wednesday arrested nearly 60 people suspected of links to a tobacco smuggling ring accused of defrauding the government of half a billion dollars, officials said.
Some 700 police taking part in early morning raids nabbed suspects across Quebec and Ontario provinces, including in two aboriginal communities along the Canada-US border.
They are accused of drug trafficking and money laundering as well as cheating the treasury of some $500 million in cigarette taxes.
The authorities allege the suspects, ranging from 35 to 65 years of age, smuggled cheap tobacco from the United States through border crossings including Kahnawake Mohawk and Iroquois ancestral territories.
The group’s reach extended to Europe and South America, police said.
The investigation, which began in 2014, constituted "the largest on tobacco smuggling in America to date, and also in cross-border crime between Canada and the United States," Quebec provincial police Captain Frederick Gaudreau said in a statement.
The operation involved the participation of the US Homeland Security Department and Drug Enforcement Administration as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and border and other agencies.
The crime ring imported at least 158 shipments totaling more than 2,294 tonnes of tobacco while avoiding paying $409 million in duties and taxes since August 2014, the police statement said.
Police seized more than 116,404 pounds (52,800 kilograms) of tobacco, 1,843 pounds of cocaine, 46 pounds of methamphetamines, 35 pounds of cannabis, 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of Fentanyl and $3 million in cash during the raids.
