WINNIPEG — Separate investigations by the Manitoba government and the RCMP have led to charges against four people, including an Ontario man, following the seizure of more than one million contraband cigarettes. Jason Michael Rondeau, a 37-year-old resident of Thunder Bay, is facing a number of federal and provincial charges. The province says on Oct. 27, Manitoba Finance investigators seized 687,000 contraband cigarettes that were being transferred by from a business into a vehicle by three males in a Winnipeg back lane. If convicted, all four accused face heavy fines or imprisonment, in addition to mandatory tax penalties in the six-figure range. The release says if the cigarettes had been sold, Manitoba would have lost more than $347,000 in tax revenue.

Source: National Post November 02, 2017 16:52 UTC