Trevor Wilhelm, The Windsor Star
Published: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Windsor is being flooded with illegal, unregulated and therefore potentially more deadly cigarettes that are smuggled in from native reserves across Canada and the U.S., according to police.

An estimated 30 per cent of all cigarettes now sold in Windsor and surrounding area are actually illegal, said Const. Dave Ferris, an OPP Crime Stoppers co-ordinator.

“It’s becoming more and more of a problem in Windsor and Essex County,” said Ferris, whose office is at Windsor police headquarters. “These native reserves, you have cigarettes being made there, and they’re only supposed to be sold on the reserve. But people are bringing them down here. Convenience stores are selling them. You have private dealers selling them from their homes and from their place of business. They’re dealing all over the place.”

“I think as the cost of normal cigarettes has gone up, that’s caused people to start looking at different places to try and save money,” said Ferris. “This is one way to do it, I guess.”

Earlier this month the RCMP stopped a vehicle on Highway 2 in Tilbury carrying 1,530 unstamped cartons, or 306,000 cigarettes, with a retail value of $122,000. They charged Walid Al-Zaghir, of Windsor, and Samer Zotti from Dearborn, Mich. with possession of unstamped tobacco products.

Late last year, police seized 5,750 cartons of DK brand contraband cigarettes, along with several loose cigarettes in zip-lock bags. The illegal smokes had come from the Brantford area. Officers charged two Windsor people with possessing, distributing, purchasing and receiving unstamped tobacco products, and conspiracy to possess and distribute unstamped tobacco products.

Ferris said the cigarettes can be hard to resist because so they’re so cheap. A legal carton of cigarettes costs about $75. You can get the illegal Native smokes for $10 or $20 a carton, he said.

A legal pack is $10. An illegal pack runs between $3 and $6.

But there’s a trade-off for the cut rate costs, he said.

“People have to realize that yeah, they’re getting a really good deal, but the as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for,” said Ferris. “These cigarettes are not regulated. They’re not subject to any strict inspections from the government. You never know what’s inside these cigarettes.”

Local health unit manager Neil MacKenzie said that is a concern. There are two categories of illegal cigarettes the health unit runs into, he said. The first is the contraband, untaxed smokes from native reserves. The second kind is counterfeit products, with material besides tobacco mixed in, that are made off-continent in places such as China.

“Those are the ones where I know they’ve had big issues around quality assurance,” said MacKenzie.

“There’s a long list of things that have been encountered in counterfeit products that weren’t tobacco.”

Examples, he said, are rocks and bat dung.

“Sometimes they’re made in a cave on the side of a hill,” said MacKenzie. “The package labels are photocopied.”

MacKenzie said his big concern is these illegal cigarettes are making smoking cheaper.

“When you make cigarettes cheaper, it certainly is contrary to one of the main strategies to limit people from taking up the habit.”

It also makes it harder for people to quit, he said.

If you have any information about the sale of illegal cigarettes, call Crime Stoppers at 519-258-TIPS or got to www.catchcrooks.com