Advocacy group sees uptick in contraband tobacco in Atlantic Canada

Rick Barnum, executive director of the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco, discusses recent busts in the Maritimes.

An advocacy group says they’re seeing an uptick in organized crime groups bringing contraband tobacco to Atlantic Canada.

Rick Barnum, executive director of the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco, said some organized crime groups are targeting both coasts of Canada.

“Over the last year or so we’ve noticed a trend in the East Coast,” he told CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis. “Organized crime is all about setting up networks. The networks are starting to mature in eastern Canada.”

In the last two months, Nova Scotia police have made multiple seizures of unstamped and contraband cigarettes, including 20 cases of cigarettes in Amherst and more than a million cigarettes in both Lower Sackville and Cape Breton.

“I would say it’s growing in Canada,” Barnum said. “Contraband tobacco is essentially a Canadian problem. It’s made mostly in southwestern Quebec and central Ontario.

“It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry.”

Earlier this year, the New Brunswick government pledged to spend $1.2 million to form a dedicated tobacco enforcement team.

“There’s been a recognition that contraband tobacco is not a victimless illicit product,” Barnum said. “Sales of legitimate cigarettes are part of (tax revenue) and that money goes back into health care, hospitals, roads, you name it.

“When organized crime siphons out $2 billion a year nationwide, that’s a big problem.”