The sale of contraband tobacco in Newfoundland and Labrador is a lucrative business for organized crime.

It’s being trucked into the province primarily from Ontario and southwestern Quebec, and is part of much larger trafficking operations that also involve drugs, firearms and even sex trafficking.

The executive director of the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco and former Deputy Commissioner with the Ontario Provincial Police, Rick Barnum, says the sale of unstamped tobacco in Canada is a billion dollar business for organized crime – and Newfoundland and Labrador represents a big part of that profit.

He says usage rates in this province are high.

“Forty per cent of your market there of individual smokers are smoking contraband cigarettes,” says Barnum. “It’s a huge market.”

Young people are increasingly being exposed to smoking through contraband tobacco, according to Barnum, while legitimate convenience stores are also taking the hit.

He says contraband is no longer about lost revenue from taxes; it’s about feeding criminal networks.

Barnum says the person you may be buying a carton or two of contraband from may not be an organized crime figurehead,  “but I can tell you, one or two levels above that person, is absolutely a significant organized crime person that has access to all kinds of damaging things in our communities.”