Reserves targeted in battle against contraband tobacco

The Globe & Mail

May 8, 2008

OTTAWA — The RCMP and the Conservative government are targeting three of the most volatile native reserves in the country as part of a new effort to battle contraband tobacco and organized crime.

A report released yesterday by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and RCMP Assistant Commissioner Raf Souccar singled out Kahnawake in Quebec and Tyendinaga and Six Nations in Ontario as the Canadian sources of illicitly manufactured tobacco.

Factories on the U.S. side of Akwesasne, which straddles the Canada-U.S. border, remain the largest producers of illegal tobacco in Canada, and Mr. Day said he was working with American officials on that front.

Cigarette Smugglers Funnel Money to Terror Groups, Report Finds

April 29, 2008

Fox News

WASHINGTON -  Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah.

A 15-page report congressional report, obtained by FOX News, includes intelligence from law enforcement as well as New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance.

Arson suspected in smoke shop fire

Daniel Nolan
The Hamilton Spectator
CALEDONIA (Feb 8, 2008)

A smoke shop at the centre of a December fracas that led to nine arrests has been damaged by fire.

Arson is the suspected cause of the fire that struck the shop at the south end of Argyle Street South, just east of Highway 6.

It follows a fire last month at another smoke shop on Highway 6 and Fifth Line, although fire officials said then it was not considered suspicious.

Another smoke shop fire in Caledonia

From CD98.9 

Haldimand OPP are investigating two fires in Caledonia. Early Thursday morning police got a report of a barn fire at the Caledonia Fair Grounds on Caithness Street East. Haldimand County Fire Department extinguished the barn that stored wooden planks, straw, and utility trailers.

Minutes later, firefighters and police were called to another fire - this time at a smoke shop at the south end of Argyle Street on Highway 6 in Caledonia. The smoke shop sustained minor damage as the fire was quickly put out by firefighters from Hagersville.

No injuries were reported in either fire and the total amount of damage is unknown at this time. While the cause of the barn fire is to be determined, the smoke shop fire has been determined as intentionally set.

Edit: More information on this fire / alleged arson will be posted as it becomes available but for the moment the OPP are being quiet about the details and I’m not going to post the rampant rumors and speculation floating around.

Caledonia smoke shack fire “not suspicious”

Updated 02/09/2007 - It seems alot of people are finding this article while searching for information about the smoke shack fire on February 7 2007.  Please see Another smoke shop fire in Caledonia  if that’s the one that brought you here. More news on the latest fire at an illegal smoke shack will be posted as it becomes available.

CD98.9

Haldimand OPP are investigating a smoke shop fire on Highway 6 south of Caledonia. Wednesday night at around 11:50 firefighters were called to Highway 6, north of the Fifth Line. At the scene they found the building fully engulfed in flames. It took crews an hour and a half to put out the flames, the building sustained extensive damage. The preliminary fire investigation has revealed the fire is not suspicious in nature. The investigation continues.

OPP fear Flemming

November 27, 2007

The ongoing protest known as Dougs Smokes by Caledonia resident Doug Flemming of the illegal Native smoke shacks on highway 6 outside of Caledonia have been an effort on his part to be arrested or at least shut down by the OPP so that they would have to deal with the bigger issue of Natives illegally selling tobacco off of the reserve.

Several times, Doug has set up his smoke shop on the property owned by Chris Syrie that is adjacent to DCE.

Teens gambling on cheap smokes

Researchers probing the multimillion-dollar underground cigarette market had expected to find a higher usage of illegal products in Hamilton high schools than elsewhere.

They had assumed local students would take advantage of the proximity to about 100 smoke shops on the Six Nations reserve that sell cheap tax-free cigarettes.

Of the 500 cigarette butts collected around five Hamilton high schools during a recent survey in Ontario and Quebec, 15 per cent were found to be contraband or from unknown sources.

The figure was significantly lower than other cities in the Greater Toronto area, such as Newmarket, Mississauga and Aurora, where almost half of the high school smokers were using illegal products.

The average illegal cigarette consumption among 55 schools in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) was 24 per cent. Among 50 schools in Greater Montreal Area (GMA), it was 35 per cent.

Read the full story here

Haldimand County : RCMP Bust 2 Local Men for Smuggling Contraband Smokes

A Hagersville man and a resident of the Six Nations reserve have been charged along with 13 people in a crackdown on tobacco smuggling in the Cornwall area.

November 1st, a number of law enforcement agencies, including the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency, the OPP and the Ontario Ministry of Revenue targeted criminal organisations that smuggle contraband smokes into the Cornwall area. During the sweep, the agencies stopped 10 vehicles and arrested 13 people. No names of have been released .

Edit: How about dealing with the local men who have set up illegal smoke shops in Haldimand instead of just those who chose to travel to Cornwall?

1/4 of Residents Buying Contraband Smokes

CD98.9 Simcoe

A new study says one-quarter of Ontario smokers avoided paying hefty tobacco taxes by purchasing their smokes from aboriginal reserves.

A report commissioned by the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit says tobacco taxes are usually a good way to stop people from smoking. But the report’s authors say the contraband smokes smuggled from the United States to aboriginal reserves is undermining the government’s efforts.

The study found the Ontario government failed to collect $72.3 million in taxes between January 2005 and June 2006 because of smuggled cigarettes.
The federal government lost out on almost $50 million in uncollected taxes during that same period.

The report’s authors recommend cracking down on those selling illegal cigarettes and encouraging aboriginal reserves to collect their own tobacco taxes.

How Canada’s natives became cigarette smugglers

National Post

In the history of cross-border smuggling, the Thousand Islands in general, and this one in particular, have a special place. Scattered through the upper St. Lawrence River, with the republic on the south shore and the dominion on the north, the islands were a smuggler’s dream — the American border is only about 10 kilometres from where I live.

But those days are in the past, no competition for a reality even better than any smuggler’s dream: Indian reserves.

The smuggling action is now to the east of us on the cross-border Akwesasne Mohawk reserve near Cornwall, Ont., where illegal cigarettes from New York state can be brought into Canada without leaving the reserve. And to the west is the Tyendinaga Mohawk reserve near Belleville, which is another sort of customs-free entity, in which tax-free cigarettes, legal for native Canadians, are smuggled out and sold on the black market. As was reported on the front page of yesterday’s Post, it is estimated that nearly one-third of all cigarettes sold in Ontario and Quebec were illicitly tax-free, smuggled off native reserves.

The lawlessness of the Caledonia, Ont., property dispute, now well over a year old, brought to public attention a phenomenon well-known in the illicit cigarette trade–namely, that many native reserves are no-go areas for police and treasury agents.

Perhaps attention is being paid now. At the end of June, when the Ontario Provincial Police obligingly closed the 401 highway in order to facilitate the native “day of action” protests, many residents in these parts were rather taken aback that the police appeared to be on the side of the illegal blockaders. Yet that has been true for a long time in regard to illegal tobacco and the rule of law — the peddlers of contraband have no better friend than police who deliberately look the other way.

Read the full story here
 

Black market sales on the rise

Tilsonburg News

A recent study confirmed illegal cigarette sales are on the rise.
The Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers’ Council recently released a study showing 22 per cent of all cigarettes smoked in Canada are contraband. For Ontario, that figure jumps to 31.6 per cent and a local MPP maintains it could be as high as 70 per cent in parts of Norfolk County.

In a call phone interview, Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MPP Toby Barrett commented on the fact he had just driven by five tobacco fields. Although that wouldn’t be unusual at one time for the provincial politician who represents the tobacco belt, it is in this instance. These are new fields within Six Nations.

Barrett is aware the new tobacco crop is being grown without quota and said this is taking a bite out of demand for what was once the main crop in his riding. Tobacco farmers are also losers when people purchase contraband cigarettes, as the tobacco isn’t produced domestically - unless it’s from the new fields, Barrett commented.

“Often times to enforce the law when people are flouting it you have to bring in the OPP or RCMP,” he said. Barrett added that having the law deal with those involved in the industry in Native territory could result in violence.

Given that the rate of contraband cigarettes purchased in Ontario is 32 per cent, Barrett called Premier Dalton McGuinty’s ‘war on tobacco’ a joke. The MPP said it was well intentioned but just didn’t work.

Read the full story here

Illegal cigarette trade thriving in Quebec and Ontario, new study indicates

PIERRE ST-ARNAUD
Thu Aug 2, 9:15 PM ET
Canadian Press

MONTREAL (CP) - The trade in contraband cigarettes is thriving in Canada, particularly in Quebec and Ontario, a new study by the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers’ Council indicates.

The study, released on Thursday, says the trade has cost federal and provincial governments $1.6 billion per year in lost revenues. The majority of the illegal cigarettes are concentrated in Quebec and Ontario. Ontario accounts for 53.8 per cent of the volume and Quebec for 41.1 per cent.

Illegal cigarettes were defined for the survey as cigarettes and tobacco sold by individuals who are not paying the appropriate taxes or duty. Those smoking illegal cigarettes in Ontario has risen to 31.6 per cent this year from 23.5 per cent in 2006. Thirty-seven per cent of smokers in Quebec pull contraband smokes.

The council says traffickers in illegal cigarettes often also sell guns, contraband liquor and drugs.

The council said the source of the contraband tobacco has changed since the 1990s. The trade was based then on popular brands that were exported to the United States and then brought back into Canada and sold without charging tax.

Now the industry is based on tobacco imported in bulk from China and South Africa and then made into cigarettes on aboriginal reserves and sold without taxes.

“About 95 per cent of the cigarettes are manufactured on aboriginal reserves,” said Yves-Thomas Dorval, a spokesman for the council.

“The first place to develop a contraband network is always close to the source.”

Read the full story here