A truck driver is facing charges after police discovered and seized contraband tobacco worth millions of dollars in the tractor-trailer he was driving.
Responding to a traffic complaint about a speeding tractor-trailer on Highway 401 on July 15, shortly before 7 a.m., Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers from the Lennox and Addington County detachment responded to the eastbound on Highway 401 near Shannonville Road.
A short time later, officers with the Frontenac Detachment stopped the tractor trailer near Joyceville Road in Kingston, according to an OPP news release. The truck was escorted to the Ministry of Transportation scales at Gananoque for a safety inspection. Documentation and other issues led to an inspection of the cargo, the release added.
Inside, OPP and MTO officers found the trailer was filled with over 17,820 kilograms of contraband, fine-cut tobacco, estimated to be worth approximately $4.4 million. That equates to a total federal and provincial tax loss of approximately $9.1 million.
As a result of the investigation, Joga Singh Dhillon, 60, of Puslinch Township, near Cambridge, Ont., has been charged with trafficking contraband tobacco.
The accused was released from custody and is scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Kingston on Sept. 2.
The investigation by the Frontenac Detachment and the OPP Contraband Tobacco Enforcement Team, in conjunction with the Ministry of Transportation, is continuing.
