SPECIAL AIRPORT SQUAD SNIFFS OUT INSIDE JOBS

A special Canada Customs team is searching planes for drugs at Vancouver
airport in an effort to head off inside jobs by airport employees working
with drug smugglers.

The four-member ramp team descends on selected flights and sweeps the
planes from nose to tail, checking nooks and crannies in washrooms, cargo
holds, the cabin and even the avionics bay under the cockpit.

That's where a Toronto search team, after which the Vancouver team is
modeled, once found a duffel bag full of cocaine.

"What happens frequently at Pearson is we find drugs concealed in the
aircraft in areas not accessible to the passengers," said Toronto Customs
spokesman Duncan Smith. "That's all we can say."

The Vancouver International Airport team -- which has been at it for a year
- -- is still looking for its first big bust.

"We haven't had any significant drug seizures inbound, no," says Kim
Scoville of Canada Customs.

Customs spokesman George Morris notes that despite extensive security
checks there are internal conspiracies involving airport workers.

At least 20 employees at Pearson International have been arrested on
breach-of-trust charges over the last three years.

During a search of a plane from Frankfurt, team leader Anita McCarthy opens
up the trap door in the aircraft and descends under the cockpit into the
avionics bay, where there's more than enough room among the stacks of
electronic equipment and wires for three adults to move about comfortably.

She and her team -- which that day included Brian Chanyan, Carl Blackhawk
and Jin Randhawa -- divide the plane into quadrants that include the cabin
and the cargo hold and they search it in less than 30 minutes.

They search six to nine aircraft a day.

They check every inch of the washrooms, under seats and even behind the
paneling -- and turn up a lot of forgotten paperbacks and clothing.

So far, says Randhawa, all she's found is drug paraphernalia.

"I guess that's good in a way," she says.