Up to Half of Ontario’s Cigarettes Are Now Contraband

[adragons]

https://www.thebureau.news/p/up-to-half-of-ontarios-cigarettes

The report cites Project Panda, an OPP investigation, which uncovered a contraband cigarette factory on Six Nations of the Grand River operated by a non-Indigenous criminal network. These cigarette operations are connected to broader transnational criminal networks, including Mexican cartels, the Hells Angels, and the Wolfpack Alliance. Project Puma in Manitoba, linked to the same networks, resulted in one of the largest drug seizures in Canadian history. Announced in May, Puma closed a two-year investigation with 33 arrests. Police seized 339 kilograms of methamphetamine, 175 kilograms of cocaine, 11.25 kilograms of fentanyl, about $825,000 in cash, 14 firearms and 1.35 million contraband cigarettes.

Not that I care about govt losing tax revenue, but damn that's a lot of money for bad guys.

 

[Oderus]

I fucking love illegal smokes

 

[Glowie]

Well its a free market and the hysterical people who shunned smokers and spurned the trudeau government to raise the cost of smokes caused this to happen

 

[MuchoRelax0]

The incredibly high tax on tobacco has pushed it into a nearly ‘prohibition zone’ thus naturally spawning a lucrative black market. Who could have possibly seen this coming?

 

[CaptainTrouble]

It's not the government's business to control what people consume. I support all black market goods.