Ontario police seize $2.3 million worth of contraband shisha tobacco, cigarettes

Ontario police say they’ve seized $2.3 million worth of illegal shisha and cigarettes. (OPP)

Ontario police say they’ve seized $2.3 million worth of illegal shisha and cigarettes from a contraband tobacco trafficking network that was allegedly operating in the Greater Toronto Area.

In a news release issued Friday, Ontario Provincial Police said they began their 16-month “intelligence-led” investigation in Jan. 2024, in collaboration with the Canada Border Services Agency and the Ontario Ministry of Finance.

Police executed three search warrants in the GTA on July 4 of last year and seized $90,000 worth of contraband tobacco, including 800 kilograms of shisha and 16,000 cigarettes. Police also seized $30,000 worth of Canadian currency.

Sixteen additional search warrants were executed on Oct. 24 in Brantford, Burlington, Mississauga, Vaughan and Scarborough and resulted in the seizure of roughly 19,000 kilograms of contraband tobacco. The seized tobacco has an estimated value of $2.3 million, police said.

Toronto resident Ali Mallah, 58, was the first to be arrested in connection with the investigation in November. He was charged with trafficking contraband tobacco.

Four additional suspects were arrested in April, including Omar Omran, 25, of Toronto, Nael Alwarasaneh, 36, of Burlington, Abdelrahman Hasan, 28, of Brantford, and Saif Hasan, 20, of Brantford. They each face a charged of trafficking contraband tobacco.

All of the accused were released from custody and are scheduled to appear in a Toronto courtroom on Monday.