Crime Stoppers are urging people to think twice before looking for cheap smokes on the black market.

The Chair of Crime Stoppers says the proceeds from the sale of illicit tobacco go straight to organized crime to help them buy drugs and guns and engage in human trafficking.

Rod Pike says Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Ontario buy more illicit tobacco than the other provinces on a per capita basis. He says unstamped tobacco is eight times more profitable in the underworld than cocaine.

Pike says they don’t care where people get their cigarettes, but if the money you’re paying goes to support crime in the neighbourhood—that’s a problem. “Funding crime is never good,” says Pike.

Pike urges anyone who’s aware of somebody who’s selling contraband to contact them.