Police seize 810,000 contraband cigarettes during arrest in Manitoba
Rosser man, 72, arrested after allegedly trying to sneak smokes into province from Ontario
A Manitoba man is facing both Criminal Code and provincial taxation-related charges for allegedly importing more than 800,000 contraband cigarettes from Ontario.
The government says in a release that a 72-year-old resident of the rural municipality of Rosser was arrested on Friday following an investigation.
A total of 810,000 cigarettes were seized and the province says if they had been sold, it stood to lose nearly $239,000 in tax revenue.
If convicted, the man faces fines of between $10,000 and $50,000 and/or jail time of up to a year.
He also faces a mandatory quadruple tax penalty of $955,800 for a previous conviction.
The man, who remains in custody, had also been sought on two arrest warrants for failure to appear in court on outstanding previous charges.
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