14 years (mandatory minimum 3 years for firearms, 5 years for repeat offences)
Straight indictable offence. Serious criminality under IRPA s.36(1). Illegal importation/exportation of firearms also potentially triggers IRPA s.37 organized criminality inadmissibility.
Moving guns across a border knowing the shipment is not authorized. The ceiling is a flat 14 years, with mandatory minimums of 3 years for firearms and 5 for a repeat, so it is serious criminality. Cross border gun cases can also raise the organized crime ground on their own.
(1) Every person commits an offence who imports or exports (a) a prohibited firearm, a restricted firearm, a non-restricted firearm, a prohibited weapon, a restricted weapon, a prohibited device, a firearm part or any prohibited ammunition, or (b) any component or part, other than a firearm part, designed exclusively for use in the manufacture of or assembly into an automatic firearm, knowing that the person is not authorized to do so under the Firearms Act or any other Act of Parliament or any regulations made under an Act of Parliament. (2) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1) when the object in question is a prohibited firearm, a restricted firearm, a non-restricted firearm, a prohibited device, a firearm part or any prohibited ammunition is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of (a) in the case of a first offence, three years; and (b) in the case of a second or subsequent offence, five years. (2.1) In any other case, a person who commits an offence under subsection (1) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than 14 years. (3) [Repealed, 2019, c. 25, s. 28]