DRUG LORDS TAPPING SENIORS AS COURIERS

TORONTO -- Foreign drug lords are using senior citizens to act as drug
couriers, the RCMP says, after a second elderly person was arrested for
smuggling in a month.

A 75-year-old Spanish man arriving from Madrid was arrested Thursday by the
Mounties and Canada Customs at Pearson airport after an attempt to smuggle
6.3 kilograms of raw opium, worth $360,000, into the country.

Customs spokesperson Duncan Smith said a man, who was visiting relatives in
Toronto, arrived last Wednesday but his luggage got lost. The bag was
located and checked before it could be returned to the man the next day.

"The bag was X-rayed and found to contain a dark gummy substance suspected
of being opium," Smith said.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Bill Matheson said the man was notified his bag had arrived
and was arrested when he went to collect it. "It's very rare that we get raw
opium here," Matheson said. "He may have gone through if his bag wasn't
lost."

A 79-year-old great-grandmother was nabbed at Pearson in December after
trying to smuggle 450 grams of marijuana, worth about $9,000, on a flight
from Jamaica, the RCMP said.