Police arrested nearly 60 people Wednesday in Quebec and Ontario as they broke up an international money laundering ring.
In what the Sureté du Quebec is calling Operation Tarantula (Mygale), officers have spent months investigating an organized crime ring spanning North America, South America, and Europe.
It culminated in 70 raids Wednesday in Ste. Therese, St. Marthe sur le lac, in the Six Nations reserve in Ontario, and in other areas near Montreal.
Police said the head of the ring, Sylvain Ethier, 40, was arrested in Ste. Therese.
The SQ later said that after warrants were issued for three Kahnawake residents, those people presented themselves at a police station and were arrested, so raids were not conducted in Kahnawake.
Police said biker gangs collaborated with aboriginal criminals to buy tobacco in the United States and then smuggle it into Canada, where it was sold in Kahnawake and the Six Nations.
"We can say as far now they were related to biker gang organizations, organized crime," said Frederic Gaudreault of the SQ.
"They were really structured. They had contacts everywhere in the legal side of it also, in transportation."
The SQ said it seized 52,800 kg of tobacco worth $13.5 million. However police said the criminal gang smuggled more than 2 million kg of tobacco between August 2014 and March 2016.
They also seized more than $1.5 million in Canadian cash, nearly $3 million in U.S. currency, 836 kg of cocaine, 21 kg of methamphetamine, and 35 lb of marijuana.
The SQ said it worked with the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police, the Drug Enforcement Administration and local police forces in 15 cities including Montreal.
