All suspects granted bail after Ontario illicit tobacco bust
An investigation into a multimillion-dollar Greater Toronto Area contraband tobacco operation has resulted in five arrests, according to police. All of the suspects have already been released on bail.
An investigation into a multimillion-dollar Greater Toronto Area contraband tobacco operation has resulted in five arrests, according to police. All of the suspects have already been released on bail.
Ontario Provincial Police said Abdelrahman Hasan, 28, Saif Hasan, 20, were arrested in April, along with Omar Omran, 25, and Nael Alwarasaneh, 36, who are also allegedly implicated in the scheme. A fifth suspect was named on Friday.
The Ontario police investigation goes back to January 2024, when the OPP Contraband Tobacco Enforcement Team began a probe into the suspected trafficking of contraband tobacco, including shisha tobacco and contraband cigarettes, by a “GTA network.”
Following that discovery, 16 search warrants were conducted in Brantford, Burlington, Mississauga, Vaughan, and Scarborough in October 2024.
After further investigation, $2.3 million in contraband tobacco, along with numerous “electronic devices,” was seized.
Five GTA men have been charged following the more than 16-month-long OPP investigation.
The name of the fifth man—Ali Mallah, 58—wasn’t made public until just recently.
All five of the accused have already been released from custody after making their scheduled appearances before the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto on June 9.
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Nice french names. "contraban tobacco" Why is that contraban, oh yeah the government didn't get their share of the sale.
And the protester from the truckers convoy has to be treated far worse by the courts in Canada than those arrested for having contraband cigarettes worth 2.3 million dollars of contraband cigarettes to sell Canadians, the Canadian justice system needs a real overhaul to be called a justice system.