WINNIPEG: Two busts by Manitoba tax collectors have netted more than 250,000 contraband cigarettes and charges against three people in two separate incidents.
The first happened Canada Day, when RCMP and Manitoba Finance investigators stopped a truck hauling a camper trailer on the TransCanada Highway east of Winnipeg. Officials said 1,000 cartons of contraband smokes were found in the trailer and one in the vehicle, for a total of 200,200 cigarettes.
One man has been charged with possession of non-Manitoba marked tobacco and willful evasion of paying Manitoba tobacco tax. If convicted, he faces fines between $1,000 and $10,000 and/or six months in jail, plus a mandatory tax penalty of $177,177.
A day after that bust, investigators spotted two men at a Winnipeg address transferring boxes they say was clearly identifiable as contraband cigarettes from one vehicle to another. Finance investigators subsequently seized 250 cartons containing 50,000 cigarettes not marked for Manitoba tax purposes. Further inspection revealed 125 cartons were not properly marked.
Two men have been charged with possessing non-Manitoba marked tobacco and willful evasion of paying Manitoba tobacco tax. If convicted, in addition to facing a fine of between $1,000 and $10,000, they face a mandatory tax penalty of $44,250.
