Posted on 04/05/2009 1:03:04 PM PDT by AtlasStalled
It is a huge black market trade, and it is growing rapidly. * * * 95 per cent of the smokes come from clandestine factories on reserves, mostly from the New York State side of Akwesasne, the centre of a massive spiderweb of smuggling operations. The riverside Mohawk community of Akwesasne straddles three borders, Ontario, Quebec and New York State, and it is a smugglers' paradise. * * * The Mounties say there are 105 organized crime groups in Canada involved in the tobacco trade, from mom-and-pop operations that only deal in cigarettes to violent groups, including the Italian mafia, Hells Angels, Asian street gangs and Jamaican posses. The Mounties can point to a growing list of busts involving gangsters and illegal tobacco. The most recent was March 12, when they charged 22 people, including two Hells Angels and two Kahnawake Mohawks, in connection with a cigarette and methamphetamine ring around Quebec City. This kind of thing makes even the Mohawks who are involved in the business nervous. The Mohawks of Kahnawake have mixed feelings about the trade. Although it employs many people on the reserve, they don’t want gangsters on the streets. In Akwesasne, police have seized AK-47s and rocket launchers, several people have been killed during police chases with smugglers, and Hells Angels ride down the street in their colours.
(Excerpt) Read more at thechronicleherald.ca ...
The source of SCHIP funding is targeted for elimination by political means and it appears that they know damn well what they’re doing.
I hope the clowns that are happy with the targeting of the tobacco industry are happy with the new taxes that will be imposed on something else inside of 5 years.
wanna bet that it will be fast/junk food?
Hmmm.
Here you are again.
Has anyone welcomed you to FR yet?
But glad to hear you quit.
Microstamping of each cigarette!!
Wait for it.
Trailer Park Boys penetrates the USA. Can’t we keep any of our Canadian heritage to ourselves?
I used to watch Corner gas late at night but can’t get it any more. That show was hillarious.
That was true in the early 1990s but is no longer the case. The "reimportation" was stopped when the government imposed taxes at the point of manufacture, cracked down on smugglers (back then most of the bootleggers were gangsters) and most importantly, they slashed tax rates to the point where bootleggers couldn't compete. This time around, the cigarettes are manufactured tax-free on Indian reserves at Six Nations and Akwesasne. The $10 "baggies" are brutal but the Indians also produce premium-quality cigarettes that sell for $15-$30 per carton. I pay $18 for my brand.
I bought us-made marlburos last summer in Riyadh, for about $15 a carton.
You think those aren’t coming back, when the US price is $50, in VIRGINIA?
BS. I would start the business myself. Err, were I not a law-abiding conservative, that is.
Ah, I was referring to the “reimportation” of the Canadian brands back in the early 1990s. Customers in the USA were legally importing tax-free cigarettes from Canada, then smuggling them back in.
It’s a funny show,better than our stupid sit coms.
Yep, got it. Look for it, it won’t take long.
“I just finished rolling my own first carton...”
I once knew a guy that could roll a cigarette with one hand. While riding a horse!
Had some friends from the US here once with their (older) kids. They couldn’t believe the language over the air when that show came on. I don’t know if you saw the raw or sanitized version. In Canada the “f” word flies from start to finish.
I’ve seen every episode uncut.I always thought the cussing was an eggageration of people that live in trailer parks there.I turned the guys on to the show at work.Downloaded them on CD’s so they could check them out.The boss got a big kick out of Ricky,Julian and Bubbles.The Conkey episode was great.
They get away with it because it’s on a cable channel. Over the air there is some salty language but only after 10pm.
Conkey was a little weird.
Best way to do that is to use Bull Durham tobacco or to move your regular tobacco to a Bull Durham bag. Then you can use one hand and your teeth on the bag's draw string, leaving the other hand for the reins.
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