Gunfire over cigarettes not new to Akwasasne

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Gunfire and intimidation are nothing new in the battle over who controls cigarette smuggling across the St. Lawrence River, said the chief of the Akwasasne band.

"Pirates" on the river have been shooting at reserve residents and at each other for years over the control of contraband cigarettes smuggling, said Chief Mike Mitchell.

"I've suffered from the same thing that the mayor in Cornwall now is suffering from having bullets fired at his house and on his property and being threatened and all that stuff," he said.

"I went through that because I was a very lonely voice appealing to Canada to help us correct this. And nothing happened."

The war over cigarette smuggling in eastern Ontario heated up Sept. 17 after shots were fired from a high-powered rifle at the Cornwall Civic Complex.

Two of the three shots, which were fired from a boat headed east on the St. Lawrence River at about 12:25 a.m., struck and went through a two-inch thick steel door before bouncing off a second door inside the building, said Cornwall police Staff Sgt. Brendon Wells.

Another round hit a half-inch thick, double-paned window, lodging between the two panes, he said. No one was hurt in the incident, although patrons at a nearrestaurant were shaken up.

While still a serious incident, the shooting is not being linked to the recent problems in the community over the illegal smuggling of cigarettes, he added.

Cornwall Mayor Ron Martell is now under police protection. Although he could not be reached for comment, Martell had said earlier that he believed the shots were a warning from "thugs" to back down on calls for more help in fighting cigarette smuggling on the river.

The shooting occurred only hours before officials from the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, the New York State police force and Quebec provincial police announced a joint effort to cut down smuggling along the Canada-U.S. border. Police estimate 50,000 cartons of cigarettes are being smuggled through Cornwall every day.

Many of the cigarettes illegally moved from the U.S. into Canada come through the Akwasasne reserve, Mitchell said. There have been at least six killings there in the last few years.

Cigarette smuggling and the resulting violence is an issue that Canada has known of but done nothing about for the last six years, he said.

"I don't know if it's been getting worse than it has been. But presently there are a lot of people here that are frustrated.

Mitchell said he agreed with Cornwall Mayor Martell that something has to be done about the "renegades on the river," but the two men stopped seeing eye-to-eye when Martell began to refer to them as "savages."

"We had a common ground when this thing started and the more it got exposed publicly, we kind of drifted. I can no longer sit and say, 'yeah, I agree with that'. I don't like the terminology and the finger pointing out there in the public."

Natives are most likely involved in the smuggling operations, Mitchell said. But they are not the only smugglers on the river.

"A few years ago, this was promoted as a Warrior Society activity," he said.

"I can say that it is no longer a Warrior Society activity. To probably every person that is not working, it looks appealing."

The Canadian Coast Guard has recommended that the Canadian army should be called in to stop the smuggling.

An official from the Coast Guard said violence perpetrated smugglers is getting out of control.