Ontario Provincial Police say they confiscated more than eight million cigarettes when they pulled men over in Haldimand and Brant counties last month.
Police say a joint investigation between the Ministry of Finance and police in the two counties led to arrests being made on April 22 and 25.
An OPP spokesperson told Global News that the two vehicles were initially pulled over for traffic offences and were not connected.
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During the stop in Haldimand on April 22, police seized two cases and 14 cartons of unmarked cigarettes while also arresting a 62-year-old man from St. Catharines.
Three days later, police pulled over a 40-year-old man from Brantford in Brant County. During the stop, a trailer was seized that held 42,000 cartons of unmarked smokes, which is the equivalent of 840 cases.
In all, police say 8,422,800 unstamped contraband cigarettes were seized.
Police pegged the federal and provincial tax losses at $2,952,275.63 as each cigarette is worth $0.18475 to the province and $0.16576 per cigarette to federal coffers.
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