COUNTY - A New Germany man faces charges after police made another significant seizure of illegal cigarettes last week.

 Officers from the South Shore street squad, the Bridgewater Police Service's general investigation section and the RCMP descended on a property with a search warrant November 28, seizing 16,000 illegal cigarettes and a Taser, which is defined as a prohibited weapon under the law.

 The 56 year old is scheduled to appear in court February 6 to answer to charges under the Criminal Code, the federal Excise Act and the provincial Revenue Act.

 This is the second significant seizure of illegal cigarettes in the region in less than three months. On September 9, Mounties from the Lunenburg and Queens detachments were conducting a checkpoint on Highway 103 in Port Mouton when they found 60,000 illegal cigarettes in a car driven by a Yarmouth man.

 The cigarettes are typically packed in bags of 200. While the same number of legal cigarettes would cost about $80, people pay between $20 and $35 for a bag of contraband.

 That's why the police are finding more of them.

 "It's almost the majority of our searches that we're going to now we're coming across these illegal cigarettes," says Cpl. Gary White, who leads the South Shore street squad.

 However, the quantity in the New Germany case was unusual.

 "That was a lot," Cpl. White says.

posted on 12/04/07