A shipping container filled with cannabis was stopped at the Port of Saint John in September.

A press release issued Friday by the Canada Border Services Agency said border services officers in Saint John received information from the agency’s export team in Halifax.

On Sept. 16, officers conducted an examination of a marine container destined for a business in the United Kingdom.

The contents of the shipment had been falsely declared as empty plastic bottles.

During their examination, officers found 16 large cardboard boxes filled with suspected cannabis.

In all, 399 packages of vacuum-sealed cannabis were seized, weighing 218 kilograms.

The cannabis and all evidence were transferred to the RCMP for further investigation.

Although legal in Canada, illicit cross-border movement of cannabis is a criminal offence, punishable by up to five years in prison under the Customs Act and up to 14 years under the Cannabis Act.