Alberta charges chief in cigarette seizure

The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commissionhas chargedChief Carolyn Buffalo of the Montana Cree First Nation at Hobbema, Alta., with possessing and storing16 million contraband cigarettes.

Police seized the cigarettes from a Quonset on the reserve Jan. 5.

Initially investigators estimatedthe number ofcigarettes at 14 million, but said a more thorough countrevealed 16 million cigarettes that cost the province$3 million in lost tax revenue.

Buffalo and twomen arecharged under the Tobacco Tax Act withstoring tobacco productsnot marked for legal sale in Alberta and forpossessing more than 1,000 cigarettes.

The two men and another manface charges fornot being licensed to import tobacco into the province for resale.

The maximum penaltiesinclude $20,000 fines, six-month prison terms or both. If convicted, individuals could also receive an additional fine of up to three times the amount of tax avoided.

Many band members and most band councillors were angered when the newsof the seizure broke.

Buffalo did not tell them about the deal with Rainbow Tobacco, a company owned and operated by the Mohawks of Kahnawake, Que., they said.

Buffalo was working toset up a company to distribute the cigarettes, which would have provided 100 new jobs on a reserve with 85 per cent unemployment, she said.