At the Westin Hotel, former Sûreté du Québec investigator Danny Fournier describes a criminal landscape transformed. After decades spent fighting organized crime and leading Quebec’s anti-contraband operations under the Accès program, Fournier is now senior manager of illicit trade prevention at Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Canada — and one of the first in the country to build an online surveillance program targeting illicit sales.

“Since 2022, we’ve seen a resurgence of illicit operations — but online,” he warns. What used to be physical, street-level smuggling has migrated to the open web. “No need to go on the deep web or dark web,” Fournier says. “On the open internet, you can find pretty much any substance — contraband tobacco, drugs, firearms.”

He calls this shift a direct consequence of criminals becoming “more refined in their methods,” while enforcement struggles to keep pace. His team has stepped in to fill major gaps: “We complement police agencies where there are shortages,” he explains. When cigarette-manufacturing machinery is intercepted at the border, “it’s us who inspect it, identify it, and produce the report so they can seize it.”

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Training has also become crucial. “This expertise was lost,” Fournier says. “Last year we trained over 2,000 police officers across Canada.”

But even with greater knowledge, the playing field remains uneven.

In provinces like Ontario, he notes, “the illicit market represents about 50% of all cigarettes.” Add to that the sensitive political reality of enforcement on Indigenous reserves: “As a society, we choose not to intervene physically on certain territories… It’s a political choice.”

The result is inconsistent application of the law across the country.

Organized crime, Fournier says, doesn’t care what the commodity is. “Tobacco, cocaine, drugs — sometimes it’s even humans. The commodity doesn’t matter.”

His message is blunt: “Police need to focus on serious crimes. Partners like us can take care of the rest.”