Jump to full article: Canadian Press, 2008-09-09
Intro: Sales of contraband tobacco are skyrocketing and now account for one in three cigarette purchases across the country, according to a new study by the tobacco industry.
Police are seizing more and more contraband smokes each year. But industry leaders say the seizures are merely drops in the bucket and want governments and police to target large-scale manufacturing plants on aboriginal reserves.
"The seizure of illegal tobacco products from the small-time distributors is really addressing the tail end of the problem," Benj Kemball, president of Imperial Tobacco, said Tuesday from the company's Montreal headquarters.
"It's important that you get to both the illegal manufacturing operations as well as the criminal networks that are taking these products off reserves and distributing them across Canada."
The study, funded by the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council and conducted by independent market research firm GfK Research Dynamics, surveyed 2,046 adult smokers in May and June. . . .
The RCMP say the study, obtained this week by The Canadian Press, is not industry hype - it matches what they're seeing on the street.
"In our area, we're way over the amount we seized last year," Sgt. Michael Harvey said from the RCMP detachment in Cornwall, Ont., near the heart of the contraband trade. . . .
Police say another challenge is convincing law-abiding citizens to stop buying contraband cigarettes, which can sell for less than a quarter of the price of legal smokes.
"These products are being trafficked by criminal networks who also deal in alcohol, drugs and firearms," Kemball said.
"It's not just an economic problem ... it's a social problem that really does threaten the fabric of society in terms of widespread criminal acts."
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