HOGANSBURG -- A Hogansburg man has been sentenced to time served and will be required to pay a $350,000 fine for his role in a scheme to smuggle cut rag tobacco into Canada from the United State.

The news comes from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of New York.

According to a press release, Carey Terrance Sr., 43, entered a guilty plea previously, admitting that from approximately 2013 to 2016 he worked with co-conspirators to acquire cut rag tobacco and smuggle it into Canada, where it was made into contraband cigarettes.

Attorneys say the members of the conspiracy sold the contraband cigarettes, making substantial profits by avoiding taxes and duties, using some of the profits to buy more cut rag tobacco that they sent into Canada.

"Funds to purchase the cut rag tobacco were sent from Canada, often through the Northern District of New York, to North Carolina.  Once purchased, the cut rag tobacco was delivered to warehouses and buildings in the Northeastern United States, including on the St. Regis Mohawk Akwesasne Reservation, where it was staged for smuggling into Canada. Terrance admitted that he laundered $221,860.20 as part of the scheme; he forfeited that amount as part of sentence in addition to the fine imposed," the release states.

Senior United States District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr. also imposed a 2-year term of post-imprisonment supervised release.  

HSI and IRS-CI investigated this case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Allen J. Vickey and Alexander P. Wentworth-Ping prosecuted this case.