Cops seize illegal smokes bound for Nunavut

RCMP in Headingly, Manitoba, a suburb of Winnipeg, on Nov. 5 seized 10,000 illegal cigarettes bound for Sanikiluaq.

The cigarettes, neatly packaged in bags of 200, were in a box scanned by Kivalliq Air’s new scanner, the RCMP in Sanikiluaq said.

The scanner was recently installed by the airline at its Winnipeg hangar to check baggage and cargo sent on Kivalliq Air flights into Sanikiluaq and other Kivalliq communities.

“With assistance from the airport officials and the RCMP in Manitoba, the illegal tobacco was prevented from going into Nunavut and sold illegally for profit,” says a Nov. 9 RCMP news release.

Cst. Terry Lyall of the RCMP detachment in Sanikiluaq said this is the first time he had heard of contraband cigarettes being smuggled into the community.

The majority of contraband tobacco seized by the RCMP from B.C. to Newfoundland comes from the American side of the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory.

Many organized crime groups are involved in manufacturing the cigarettes and use the proceeds from illegal tobacco to fund other activities, the RCMP says.