Nascar driver Derek White was among almost 60 people targeted by Quebec and Ontario police in the biggest tobacco-smuggling bust in North American history, according to law enforcement officials. 
 
 Authorities said some of the suspects arrested early Wednesday have links to biker gangs and organized crime, buying tobacco in the U.S. and illegally importing it into Canada through three border crossings. The tobacco was ultimately sold on the Kahnawake and Six Nations reserves, according to police. 
 
 White, 45, a member of the Mohawk tribe who lives in Kahnawake near Montreal, became the first Native American to start a Sprint Cup race last year, according to NBC Sports. Ingrid Asselin, a spokeswoman for Surete du Quebec, the provincial police force, declined to confirm that the Derek White they arrested is the Nascar driver. Law enforcement officials, who requested anonymity because of restrictions about commenting beyond the scope of the warrants, said it was the same man. White is listed as one of the top ranking members of the smuggling operation, according to a chart provided by police. 
 
 Dwayne Zacharie, Kahnawake’s chief peacekeeper, said investigators from Quebec contacted his police force early Wednesday and said they had arrest warrants for three members of the tribe, including Nascar driver Derek White. Zacharie said his office informed the three suspects of the warrants and told them to contact Quebec police. 
 
 It was unclear if White was among those taken into custody on Wednesday. An attorney for White didn’t return a phone call requesting comment. 
 
 Lieutenant Jason Allard, spokesman for the Quebec provincial police, said the tobacco operation was tightly organized. It bought shipments of tobacco leaf in North Carolina, trucking them north and reselling them in Canada. Profits from tobacco were used to purchase cocaine, and some of the money was laundered abroad, in Europe, he said. The tobacco shipments were not declared at the border and disclosed to government officials, thereby avoiding taxes and allowing the cigarettes to be manufactured and sold for less money. Baggies of 200 cigarettes can be purchased for $5 at Native smoke shops on the U.S. side of the border. 
 
 The arrests took place in 70 raids at residences and shops in Montreal and surrounding areas, as well as in Ontario, police said. Almost 700 Canadian and U.S. police were involved in the bust, according to a statement from Frederick Gaudreau, an investigator at the Surete du Quebec. Zacharie said no searches or arrests took place on Kahnawake territory in connection with the investigation. 
 
 Police seized more than 52,800 kilograms of tobacco, 836 kilos of cocaine, 21 kilos of methamphetamine, 100 grams of fentanyl and 35 pounds of marijuana, police said. 
 
 The smuggling operation deprived the Quebec and Canadian governments of more than C$530 million ($409 million) in taxes, police said. ||||| In what it called the largest raid of its kind in America, provincial police dismantled a drug, tobacco and money laundering ring on Wednesday that had roots in Quebec and reached as far as South America and Europe. 
 
 While collaborating with more than a dozen municipal police forces, the operation led to more than 60 people being arrested — including the alleged head of the organization — and more than 70 search warrants being carried out. 
 
 In total, police seized $13.5 million worth of tobacco, more than $3 million in U.S. cash, $1.5 million in Canadian cash and more than 800 kilograms of cocaine. 
 
 “This is the largest operation we’ve had to this day in connection to contraband tobacco, and also in cross-border crime between Canada and the United States,” Sûreté du Québec chief Frédérick Gaudreau said in a statement. 
 
 According to police, the network that was targeted had ties to both biker gangs and Aboriginal organized crime. 
 
 Police allege the criminal organization imported 158 tobacco cargoes since August 2014, totalling more than 2 million kilograms and representing fraud of more than $530 million. The majority of it was being sold in Kahnawake and in the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Ontario, police said. 
 
 A map provided by police alleges that tobacco was being shipped toward Montreal and Kahnawake from North Carolina, after stops in New Jersey and Buffalo. 
 
 Authorities believe most of the tobacco was brought in through three border crossings: one in Lacolle, Que., one in Lansdowne, Ont. (on the Thousand Islands bridge), and the Fort Erie crossing that connects Ontario to Buffalo, N.Y. 
 
 As part of the investigation, there were four separate 12,000-kilogram tobacco shipments that were seized between the three border crossings in the last two years alone, said Dominic McNeely, a spokesperson with Canada Border Services Agency. The last shipment was seized this month. The agency had about 100 officers helping with the operation on Wednesday. 
 
 Police also allege that the organization was shipping drugs from Montreal to Detroit, and from South America into the United States. Police seized 21 kilograms of methamphetamine, 100 grams of fentanyl and 35 pounds of marijuana on Wednesday. 
 
 As for the money laundering, police suggest money was being sent from Montreal to different places in the United States and South America, before ultimately heading toward Europe. 
 
 The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was also involved in the operation, but would not comment on its involvement, in order to “protect the integrity of the investigations.” 
 
 Locally, police said they made arrests and conducted raids on the North Shore of Montreal, in the Laurentians, in Lanaudière and in Kahnawake. 
 
 Three of the alleged members of the criminal organization — including one of the higher-ups — handed themselves over to police in Kahnawake after collaborating with local peacekeepers. 
 
 The arrest of three members of the Kahnawake Mohawk band presented the SQ with a few additional hurdles. Because the provincial police don’t have jurisdiction on the South Shore territory, they needed to cooperate with local peacekeepers Wednesday morning. 
 
 But the growth and sale of contraband tobacco isn’t considered illegal in Kahnawake, who deem it a constitutional right akin to hunting and fishing on other territories. Though his officers don’t intervene in tobacco-related arrests, chief Peacekeeper Dwayne Zachary helped broker a compromise with the SQ. 
 
 “I told them, what we could do is assign somebody to notify the individuals about the (arrest warrants),” Zachary told the Montreal Gazette. “From there we helped them arrange a location where they could turn themselves in (to provincial police).” 
 
 NASCAR driver Derek White, 45, was among the three Mohawk men arrested Wednesday. During a Sprint Cup Series race in New Hampshire last July, White became the first driver from a First Nations territory to compete in NASCAR’s top level. 
 
 The alleged head of the organization was among those arrested on Wednesday. Sylvain Ethier, 40, from Ste-Thérèse, faces possible fraud charges by the Canadian, Quebec and Ontario governments. Police alleged there were 20 people working directly under him, transporting the tobacco and transferring the money. 
 
 The investigation, titled Project Mygale, started in the fall of 2014. A total of 700 police officers were involved on Wednesday. 
 
 Gary Grant, a spokesperson for the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco, said the raids highlight how prominent the issue is in Canada. 
 
 “A lot of people over the years have discounted it as a victimless crime, as just a few people saving money on their taxes,” Grant said, “But when you see the types of results that have come from the raids you understand the seriousness of the problem.” 
 
 With 40 years of experience with the Toronto police service, Grant said he wasn’t surprised to hear of the extent of the alleged criminal ring. 
 
 “Contraband tobacco is so profitable,” he said. “It’s big-time money, it’s big-time crime.” 
 
 Christopher Curtis of the Montreal Gazette contributed to this report 
 
 jfeith@postmedia.com 
 
 Twitter.com/jessefeith
– Seven hundred Canadian and US officers were involved in almost 70 searches Wednesday that led to the largest tobbaco-smuggling bust in North American history, NBC Sports reports. Almost 60 people were arrested, including NASCAR driver/owner Derek White, who turned himself in Wednesday after hearing about a warrant out for his arrest. Canadian officials, assisted by the US DEA and Homeland Security, started investigating illegal transports of tobacco from North Carolina to Canada in 2014. The alleged scheme, which the Montreal Gazette reports has links to biker gangs and Aboriginal organized crime, involved buying tobacco in the US and bringing it into Canada without declaring it, thus avoiding taxes. Police say that since 2014, at least 2,294 tons of tobacco were transported, meaning about $530 million in Canadian taxes went unpaid. Profits from the tobacco sales were allegedly used to buy cocaine, and more than 1,800 pounds of cocaine was seized in the raids—along with about 46 pounds of meth, 35 pounds of cannabis, 100 grams of fentanyl, and millions in US and Canadian cash. White, 45, who became the first Native American driver in the Sprint Cup Series last July, faces three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud against the government, three counts of fraud toward the government, and one count of profiteering as a criminal organization. Per a chart police provided to Bloomberg, White was listed as one of the highest-ranking members of the smuggling organization. "This is the largest operation we’ve had to this day in connection to contraband tobacco, and also in cross-border crime between Canada and the United States," says a Quebec official.