GERALDTON, Ont. — An Alberta man caught with hundreds of thousands of contraband cigarettes has been fined more than $300,000 by an Ontario court.
Ontario’s Revenue Ministry says Scott Smith of Sylvan Lake was convicted late last month of possession of 690,000 unmarked cigarettes.
Ontario Provincial Police stopped Smith’s vehicle near the northwestern Ontario community of Geraldton on Feb. 24.
The Revenue Ministry’s special investigations branch charged him after officers discovered the unmarked cigarettes.
A Geraldton court fined Smith nearly $253,000 and he must also pay a $63,000 victim surcharge, for a total of $316,000.
The unmarked cigarettes were seized and forfeited to the Ontario government.