Man Sentenced to 78 Months for Money Laundering in Tobacco Smuggling Scheme Published: 22 May 2021 22 May 2021 Charlotte, North Carolina - A North Carolina man was sentenced Thursday to 78 months in prison for conspiring to commit money laundering and filing a false tax return. According to court documents and other information presented in court, Phil Howard, 55, arranged on at least 221 different occasions for cut-rag tobacco to be transported by trucks from Wilson, North Carolina, to an area on or near the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation Reservation (Akwesasne Reservation) as part of a conspiracy to smuggle the tobacco into Canada without paying Canadian federal excise duties and provincial taxes. The Akwesasne Reservation straddles the U.S.-Canadian border on both banks of the St. Lawrence River. Co-conspirators then smuggled the cut-rag tobacco over the St. Lawrence River and transported it to the Kahnawake Mohawk Nation Reservation in Quebec. Ultimately, the cut-rag tobacco was manufactured into contraband cigarettes.