From: Winnipeg Sun
A Quebec man will pay fines worth nearly a dollar per cigarette after smuggling 1.75 million smokes into the province.
Meanwhile, another man, from Sagkeeng First Nation, has been sent to jail for tobacco smuggling.
Black market cigarettes. (QMI Agency files)
Rene Bigras of St. Constant, Que., was stopped by RCMP and Manitoba Finance in May 2009, and found to be in possession of 1.75 million unmarked cigarettes. He was arrested again in March 2010 with 600,000 unmarked cigarettes.
Charges under the Manitoba Tobacco Tax Act, Tax Administration and Miscellaneous Taxes Act and federal Excise Act were laid against Bigras.
He’s now been found guilty of all charges and ordered to pay more than than $1.75 million.
Manitoba’s levied fines $3,000 and $2,000, plus tax penalties of $971,333 and $369,000. The feds are asking for $125,000.
Carl Richard Fontaine of Sagkeeng First Nation was arrested in October 2008. He was charged for possesion of 200,000 unmarked cigarettes and has now been found guilty.
Fontaine has been ordered to serve six months in jail, concurrently for each of the federal and provincial charges. He was also assessed a $105,000 tax penalty.
