Breadcrumb Path Hyperlinks
Information Native Information Crime
Yung Fung was a small participant in massive contraband smuggling operation that prevented $1.4 million in tax
Article content material
A person has been discovered responsible of possessing and delivering hundreds of thousands of contraband cigarettes from a warehouse in Richmond to a storage behind an East Vancouver dwelling.
Commercial 2
Article content material
In response to a provincial court docket of B.C. ruling, Yung Fung was a part of a cigarette smuggling operation that was uncovered in 2018 and early 2019 after B.C. Ministry of Finance investigators obtained a tip from Ontario police that hundreds of thousands of unstamped cigarettes had been being introduced into B.C.
Article content material
Each the federal and B.C. authorities require tobacco makers to pay them tax in change for a stamp that’s positioned on every cigarette carton and is required by legislation to ensure that that tobacco to be bought to people who smoke.
Unstamped, or contraband, cigarettes are bought within the underground market as a result of they’re cheaper on account of these taxes not being utilized.
Court docket heard that between Aug. 20, 2018 and Jan. 23, 2019 investigators decided that shipments of contraband tobacco had been being delivered to a delivery firm in Richmond after which transported to a storage on the 2700-block of Ward Road in East Vancouver’s Renfrew-Collingwood neighbourhood, from the place it was bought.
Article content material
Commercial 3
Article content material
In complete, 33 deliveries had been made comprising 80 skids, with every skid containing 50 half-cases that every held 6,000 cigarettes — comprising 24 million cigarettes in complete.
Throughout this time, ministry investigators staked out the operation, at one level placing a monitoring system on a car that was being pushed by Fung from one vacation spot to the opposite.
When the ring was busted, Fung was charged with possessing, transporting or delivering unstamped tobacco merchandise between October 2018 and January 2019 underneath each the Prison Code of Canada and the federal Excise Act.
The Crown alleged that Fung was a lower-tier participant within the operation however that he knowingly took possession of contraband cigarettes and facilitated their storage and unlawful distribution in and round Vancouver.
Commercial 4
Article content material
In court docket, by an interpreter, Fung mentioned that he had no thought he was transporting contraband cigarettes, as an alternative believing that he was delivering kitchen utensils or restaurant provides.
In her ruling, provincial court docket of B.C. Decide Harban Dhillon mentioned she didn’t imagine Fung.
“I’ve little or no confidence that Mr. Fung is telling the court docket the reality about his information of what he was tasked with delivering previous to, and particularly on, Jan. 23, 2019,” Dhillon wrote.
“Mr. Fung mentioned he believed he was delivering restaurant provides. But his deliveries had been by no means to a specified restaurant or enterprise handle. The deliveries had been person-to-person handovers in parking tons. It might be hypothesis to say there may need been a restaurant close by the parking zone when it will be far simpler to ship proper to such close by premises.
Commercial 5
Article content material
“Mr. Fung’s general proof was replete with half turns and reversals from his prior proof, and interspersed with evasion and argument.
“I discover on a totality of the proof, direct and circumstantial, that the prosecution has confirmed past an affordable doubt Mr. Fung was in understanding possession of unstamped tobacco merchandise on Jan. 23, 2019. I discover Mr. Fung responsible of Rely 1 and Rely 2 of the Indictment.”
Dhillon’s ruling didn’t point out whether or not different individuals at the next degree within the smuggling operation had been arrested or charged. Fung, who was born in 1968, might be sentenced at a later date.
The quantity of federal obligation that ought to have been paid on the cigarettes was $420,042 and a provincial tax of $968,595 for a complete of $1.389 million.
dcarrigg@postmedia.com
Spring subscription sale: Our in-depth journalism is feasible because of the assist of our subscribers. For a Restricted time, you will get full on-line entry to The Vancouver Solar and The Province, together with the Nationwide Submit and 13 different Canadian information websites, for simply $40 for one yr or $1 every week for 52 weeks. Help our journalism by subscribing at the moment: The Vancouver Solar.
Feedback
Postmedia is dedicated to sustaining a full of life however civil discussion board for dialogue and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Feedback might take as much as an hour for moderation earlier than showing on the location. We ask you to maintain your feedback related and respectful. We’ve enabled electronic mail notifications—you’ll now obtain an electronic mail in the event you obtain a reply to your remark, there’s an replace to a remark thread you observe or if a consumer you observe feedback. Go to our Neighborhood Pointers for extra info and particulars on learn how to alter your electronic mail settings.
Be part of the Dialog