A man charged in connection with a contraband cigarette case has had his trial adjourned while his new lawyer comes up to speed on the case, a Vancouver Provincial Court judge heard July 4.
Cong Ton Tran, 57, is charged with six counts including possessing, transporting or having for sale unstamped tobacco products in 2018 and 2019.
The alleged offences took place in Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby and elsewhere in B.C., court documents said.
It’s illegal to possess, sell or have possession of tobacco in excess of one kilogram that does not bear the prescribed mark or stamp and/or to transport in excess of 50 cartons of cigarettes unless that person has the required authorization to do so.
And, tobacco products cannot be legally sold in B.C. unless each package of cigarettes is marked with the British Columbia tax stamp.
Defence lawyer Tony Paisana told Judge Reginald Harris an adjournment of the trial set for October was needed. He said he was Tran’s new counsel and needed time to get familiar with the case.
Harris heard a trial could take eight days and that a new pre-trial conference would be needed with a new lawyer on board.
Previous case
A man by the same name was mentioned in a May 2023 decision where Judge Harbans Dhillon convicted Yung Fung on charges that he possessed, transported and made for sale contraband tobacco in 2018 and 2019.
The charges in the Fung case came after a B.C. Ministry of Finance investigation uncovered boxes of contraband cigarettes in a residential garage in Vancouver and in the hold of an abandoned U-Haul van.
There, Dhillon said the ministry began an investigation into the importation and distribution of illegal tobacco products in Metro Vancouver after a tip from Ontario Provincial Police that large quantities of illegal tobacco products were being shipped from Ontario to British Columbia.
When investigators executed search warrants, they found almost 700 half-cases of cigarettes — or 3.5 million cigarettes. The federal tax duty payable on such an amount would be almost $1.39 million, Dhillon said.
Contraband hits government pockets
The B.C. government had been expecting $760 million in tax revenue from tobacco sales in the 2022-23 fiscal year. It then reduced that expectation by $45 million, to $715 million in its first quarterly report of the fiscal year, Business in Vancouver reported last fall.
The ministry has a dedicated criminal investigations unit working closely with municipal police forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada Revenue Agency, Canada Border Services Agency and other law-enforcement agencies.
In the 2021-22 fiscal year, that unit seized 3.6 million grams of illegal tobacco, the Ministry of Finance said, adding that between April 1 and June 30, the unit seized an additional 2.7 million grams of illegal tobacco.
