Mounties Track Down Fake Cigars Counterfeit Cuban Stogies Packed With Hair, Leaves

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating a multimillion-dollar scam in which counterfeit Cuban cigars - some packed with human hair and deadly banana leaves - are smuggled in and sold to Americans.

Those doing the smuggling are eager to make big profits from selling Cuban cigars to U.S. citizens banned from buying them at home.

“It’s happening across Canada - we’re getting calls from Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal,” Constable Doug Bissette said.

Americans cross the border into Windsor for Cuban cigars long forbidden at home under a U.S. embargo against Fidel Castro’s regime.

Last fall, two Americans tipped police to the scam, saying they paid a store owner in Windsor $540 each for boxes they believed contained Cohibas, considered the best Cuban cigar. That was less than half the usual selling price of $1,190 a box.

What the Americans lit were foul-tasting fakes made from floor sweepings in Cuban cigar factories.

Mounties in Windsor have seized more than 5,000 counterfeit Cuban cigars with a street value of more than $210,000.

A Canadian cigar shop manager says most, if not all, cigars brought back to Canada by tourists are fake.

“They’re getting ripped off. They’re buying cigars on the street for $30 a box, and they’re made from scraps. It wouldn’t happen if they bought from the stores and just paid the tax,” said Dan Houtteman of La Casa del Habano.