More than 1.5 million grams of illegal tobacco destined for the Lower Mainland was seized in in 2019-2020 fiscal year, the province said. In a news release Tuesday, the finance ministry said the amount being smuggled was equivalent to 1.6 million cigarettes and represented more than $425,000 in provincial tobacco tax loss. There were three operations targeting the Lower Mainland: Vancouver and Burnaby, where 1,558,040 grams were seized, a Vancouver Downtown Eastside operation where 10,000 grams were seized and a Richmond operation that saw 1,140 grams seized. The 2019-2020 seizures were a sharp drop compared to the 2018-2019 year, which saw 5.75 million grams of tobacco seized in Vancouver. ... [Read more]