MONTEREGIE: Police seized 2.4 tonnes of contraband tobacco and made six arrests May 5 in Ste-Barbe and St-Zotique in the Montérégie.
Early that morning, police spotted a boat on the St. Lawrence River that they suspected was loaded with contraband smokes. It was sailing east toward the south shore. It docked in Ste-Barbe, midway between Montreal and Cornwall, Ont.
Police arrested a man on the spot, but two others fled, one by jumping into the water. They were arrested a few minutes later.
Police seized 41 garbage bags containing fine-cut tobacco with a total weight of 717 kg.
But the police operation didn’t end there. That evening, two other suspects docked near a motel in St-Zotique. Several bags were unloaded from the boats and transferred to a truck, police said. Three men were arrested, but others fled by water and have not yet been located.
In the second operation, 110 garbage bags containing about 1,719 kg of fine-cut tobacco were seized by police.
Organizations and police forces involved in the investigation include the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police, Canada Border Services Agency, and the Ontario Ministry of Finance, with the input of the Sûreté du Québec.
