Victoria police seized about 3,400 cartons of contraband cigarettes with an estimated value of more than $500,000 along with over $130,000 in Canadian currency after executing a search warrant at an Esquimalt home.
The search followed the late-February arrest of a suspect after police conducting covert surveillance saw a person selling cartons and packs of cigarettes in the 900-block of Pandora Avenue.
To be sold legally in B.C., tobacco products must display provincial stamps on the packaging that indicates the payment of both provincial and federal taxes, police said.
The investigation began last month and is ongoing.
Police said contraband tobacco is being sold in the region at a fraction of its retail price, and the profits help fund organized crime, drug trafficking and gun trafficking, while depriving governments of tax revenue that goes to such services as health care and education.
The Esquimalt seizure follows a February announcement by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C. — which targets gangs — that a months-long police operation on southern Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland recovered about 11.9 million contraband cigarettes, with an estimated value of $11 million.
It was the largest-ever one‑time seizure of contraband cigarettes in B.C.
Also seized were 10 pallets of contraband liquor, 32 firearms (including rifles, shotguns and handguns), a large amount of ammunition, eight vehicles, a speedboat and half a kilogram of cocaine.
Search warrants were executed Jan. 24 and 25 in Victoria, Surrey, Abbotsford and Langley.
The Ministry of Finance’s Tobacco Enforcement Team worked with the enforcement unit to locate the cigarettes.
B.C. RCMP said Friday that a combined total of over 27 tonnes of contraband cigarettes worth more than $24 million was seized in the province over the past year.
Assistant RCMP Commissioner David Teboul said at a Surrey news conference that the total amounted to 133,000 cartons of cigarettes, and called their seizure a “major blow” to organized-crime groups — which he described as “the main orchestrators and beneficiaries” of contraband tobacco sales.
Another investigation that involved contraband cigarettes on Vancouver Island began in 2021 in Nanaimo, and widened to involve Cobble Hill, Vancouver, Langley, Abbotsford and Edmonton. The result was the seizure of 66,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes and 10 arrests.
Anyone with information on the sale of contraband tobacco in Victoria is asked to call Victoria police at 250-995-7654, extension 1, or to report anonymously to Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
— With files CP
