4 arrested after Brandon police seize millions of illegal cigarettes following traffic stop

Four men from Brandon have been arrested after police in the southwestern Manitoba city seized millions of illegal cigarettes last week. 

Police found more than 350 cases of illegal cigarettes — including 173 found in a vehicle during a traffic stop in Brandon on Sept. 9, and 183 more found the next day when police searched a storage locker.

Each case contained 50 cartons of cigarettes, police said. A carton usually contains 200 cigarettes.

"This 350 cases is significant," said Ron Bell, a supervisor with Manitoba Finance's special investigations unit, which worked with Brandon police on the investigation. 

The "extremely large" bust involved a well-organized group that "stood to profit immensely" from the sale of the illegal cigarettes, he said.

"The financial reward, if you're able to make it work, is mind-boggling," Bell said. "The profit from cigarettes is over 300 per cent." 

Police said the cigarettes originated in Six Nations in Ontario, near Hamilton, and were being shipped to Brandon, some 1,600 kilometres away. Officers seized 3,570,400 unmarked cigarettes, along with cash, a vehicle and a transport trailer.

It's one of the largest such busts ever made in Manitoba, police said.

The bust comes just months after one made by RCMP in May, which netted another 350 cases of illegal tobacco.

That seizure was made just outside of Brandon, and resulted in the arrest of a 36-year-old man from Calgary. 

"People don't think of it as a major crime," Bell said. "They don't call up Crime Stoppers and say, 'This is a fellow who has a truckload of tobacco and he's selling it at the corner … for $80 a carton.'"   

Bell said the profit margins with illegal tobacco are proving to be larger than those of selling cocaine or marijuana, for example, and he believes that's making it increasingly appealing. 

"The people that we're arresting, they are not first-time offenders," he said. "They know what's right and what's wrong. They just see a larger profit margin from tobacco." 

If the cigarettes seized last week had been sold, the Manitoba government stood to lose more than $1 million in tax revenue, Bell said. 

The four men, who range in age from 46 to 60 years old, were charged with possession of unstamped tobacco and possession of more than 25 units of unmarked tobacco, police said.

For a first-time offence under provincial tax acts, they face fines between $1,000 and $10,000 and/or up to six months in jail if convicted, the province said in a news release.

They also face a tax penalty of more than $3.2 million and a loss of assets to the criminal forfeiture unit, the province said.