A dozen people were arrested in the Montreal region and in Nunavik as part of the dismantling of a vast network of illegal resale of alcohol and drug trafficking in 14 communities in Nord-du-Québec.
Posted at 8:46 a.m.
According to initial information, the alleged criminals bought alcohol in the Montreal area. They would then have shipped it by mail to resell it in Kativik communities, at prices approximately 8 to 12 times higher than the original purchase cost.
“Bottles of spirits purchased in Montreal for between $15 and $25 could be resold in the Far North at prices of up to $200 per bottle,” explains the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) in a press release.
The SQ and the Nunavik Police Service made these multiple arrests on Wednesday morning as part of a project called PLUTONIUM.
The suspects will face charges of fraud, concealment, trafficking in prohibited substances and conspiracy.
From 2016 to 2020, the network would have bought nearly 43,000 bottles of alcohol and would have resold them for an estimated sum of more than 8 million, according to the police force.
A series of searches carried out in 2020 had initially resulted in the seizure of, among other things, 180 bottles of spirits, cannabis in various forms, narcotics, contraband tobacco, electrical energy weapons, in addition to four vehicles as offence-related property and over $118,000.
The investigation, which began in June 2019, was conducted with the collaboration of Revenu Québec, the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) and Canada Post inspectors.