MOUNTIES INVESTIGATE AIRPORT DRUG RING

Workers Transfer Contraband To Rarely Checked Domestic Flights

TORONTO -- Airport authorities are probing a smuggling operation at Pearson
airport in which drugs arriving on international flights are trans-shipped
on domestic flights to bypass security.

"It does happen," RCMP Sgt. Bill Matheson said yesterday. "This is a very
difficult thing for us to investigate."

Police said domestic flights are also used by B.C. growers of marijuana to
traffic drugs to dealers across the country. Domestic flights aren't checked
by Canada Customs and rarely by police.

The Mounties said smuggling ring members at Pearson are alerted by global
traffickers to drug-filled luggage arriving on international flights. The
bags are then removed by the smugglers and put on the rarely checked
domestic flights.

"The sheer volume of bags makes it impossible for us to ensure everything is
checked," Matheson said. "It's almost an impossibility."

Police said most of the bags being switched by airport workers contain
millions of dollars in heroin and cocaine.

The bags are taken off the flights by workers in Canadian cities who smuggle
them out of the airport.

"This place is so big that it's difficult to ensure nothing is being
smuggled out," Matheson said.

Customs spokesman Mark Butler said the inside job is one way of smuggling drugs.

"We have come across cases of internal conspiracy," Butler said. "We do
monitor goods coming in and being off-loaded."

He said his officers have authority to search and detain suspicious workers
at the airport.

"We are there and are vigilant," Butler said. "We're constantly on the
lookout for illegal goods coming into the country."

He said baggage handlers are security screened before being hired by airport
authorities and customs officers do not check domestic luggage.