PEARSON DRUG BUSTS HIT $10.7M

31 People Arrested In Past 2 1/2 Months

MISSISSAUGA -- A man who did "the funky chicken" after a cocaine-filled
condom burst in his stomach was among 31 people arrested in the past 10
weeks for smuggling drugs into Pearson airport.

Canada Customs agents seized over $10.7- million worth of drugs at the
airport and a nearby Canada Post facility over the past 21/2 months. Agents
made a total of 162 seizures, including 44.6 kg of cocaine, 772 grams of
heroin, 24.4 kg of marijuana, 1,098 kg of khat, 13,820 Ecstasy pills and
671 grams of Ecstasy base.

Drug-sniffing dogs, ion-scan and X-ray machines detected drug shipments
despite smugglers' attempts to disguise them.

COVERED IN AXLE GREASE

In one case a smuggler had two 1-kg bricks of cocaine covered in axle
grease and wrapped in plastic inside a suitcase. The largest seizure
occurred Sept. 2 when 4.6 kg of cocaine worth $920,000 on the street was
found hidden inside suitcases carried by a Quebec couple.

A 28-year-old Whitby man travelling with a 27-year-old Oshawa woman from
Jamaica on Aug. 13 were singled out for inspection when the man displayed
signs of drug packets bursting inside his body.

"We call it doing 'the funky chicken' because of their increasingly
frenetic body movements," said customs spokesman Duncan Smith. Agents
offered to call for medical attention, which the man repeatedly refused,
but they insisted and the decision ended up saving the man's life.

'DIED A COUPLE OF TIMES'

"The guy died a couple of times, he was in extremely grave condition before
being revived at Etobicoke hospital," said Smith.

The man had ingested 360 grams of cocaine worth $74,000, while his
companion had swallowed 100 grams of hashish and inserted one kilogram of
cocaine in her vagina.