RCMP Watch

Steve Bruce, Halifax, N.S. (ChronicalHerald.ca) - Two Dartmouth brothers, one an ex-Mountie, could be fined more than $100,000 after being found guilty this week of smuggling cigarettes into the province.

Thomas Matthew Tapper, 56, and Rody Francis Martin, 45, both of Trillium Court, were convicted Tuesday in Dartmouth provincial court.

Both men are members of the Shubenacadie Mi’kmaq band who live off reserve. Mr. Tapper, a former RCMP officer, drives a taxi while Mr. Martin works for an environmental contractor.

They were charged in August 2006 after members of the RCMP’s customs and excise unit, investigating anonymous tips, stopped and searched Mr. Tapper’s van on Highway 102 at Millers Lake.

Inside the vehicle, officers found 22 cases of bagged, unmarked cigarettes that the pair had transported from a First Nations reserve in Quebec.

There were about 1,100 bags in total. Each bag contained 200 cigarettes and would have sold on the street for $30.

Judge Bill MacDonald convicted the men of violating the provincial Revenue Act by possessing tobacco on which tax had not been paid and by illegally transporting tobacco. He also found them guilty of violating the federal Excise Act by possessing unstamped tobacco products.

The judge stayed a Revenue Act charge of possessing unmarked tobacco.

The pair’s sentencing was adjourned until Sept. 10.

Provincial Crown attorney Jim Clarke said each man could be fined about $105,000 under the Revenue Act and between $30,000 and $40,000 under the Excise Act.

Mr. Tapper and Mr. Martin represented themselves at their trial, which got underway last December.

Judge MacDonald rejected the defence’s attempt to have the RCMP’s search warrant thrown out and twice denied a request for a government-funded lawyer.

The defendants told the court they lacked the expertise to argue that their aboriginal and treaty rights allowed them to possess the tobacco, but the judge ruled there was “no air of reality” that such a defence would have been successful.