DRUG SMUGGLING: AN INSIDE JOB

Tom Godfrey explores the uphill battle of Pearson airport security and
customs officers in their fight to stem the flow of illegal drugs into
Canada via flights from around the world

AIRPORT CUSTOMS chief Allen Ilasewich and his agents are on the front lines
in the battle to stop drugs and contraband from hitting the streets of
Toronto. They examine tonnes of cargo and up to 70,000 travellers a day
entering the country, but their biggest fight is from organized crime rings
who have a network of workers on staff at Pearson to help sneak in drugs.

"There is a lot of money to be had in smuggling drugs," Ilasewich says.
"Our biggest enemy is the element of the criminal mind."

He said customs and the RCMP are working together in an all-out effort to
smash the rings.

"We are focused on organized crime groups involved in smuggling," Ilasewich
says. "We have joint patrols on the ramp."

DETECTOR DOGS

Crime rings apparently are still discovering the hidden security features
of the new Terminal 1 and it will take some time before they locate the
hundreds of cameras.

Customs officers say drug lords are now shipping dope to Canada through
countries that have not been traditionally linked to organized crime.

Today, a flight from Zurich has been targeted for checks after customs
intelligence officers noted drugs being regularly shipped through Switzerland.

Officers with detector dogs are waiting outside a Boeing 727 that winds to
a halt. The team heads for the cargo hold in the belly of the jet as a dog
begins sniffing luggage.

In the cabin, officer Alex Sybydlo, leads Charlie, a black Labrador, to the
front of the jet and they work their way toward the tail of the craft in
search of drugs stashed on the plane to be taken off by workers when the
flight arrives at Pearson.

Customs officers have begun boarding the jets before groomers and other
workers can sneak drugs out.

"We check everywhere from floor to ceiling," Sybydlo says, as Charlie races
around the washrooms, cockpit, cargo and overhead bins. Life jackets,
seats, head and arm rests and areas accessible to the public get sniffed next.

Charlie, who was first trained to search for gas leaks, was seized from an
Alberta pipeline company that went bankrupt. He has been trained to detect
11 types of drugs.

"Charlie is a working dog," Sybydlo says. "When his tail stops wagging you
know there is something there."

And as customs officers examine the aircraft, officer Leslie Buck, 35, and
his dog, Gunner -- who can detect drugs, firearms and explosives -- search
the off-loaded luggage area.

"He (Gunner) is not only a pet, but a part of the family," Buck says. "This
is a game to him."

The team last summer searched passengers arriving on the now-defunct Breeze
ferry at the Cherry St. terminal. The only items found were some joints of
marijuana on a passenger.

Gunner, who can detect marijuana, heroin, Ecstasy, crystal meth and
hashish, is credited for stopping $750,000 in dope from hitting the
streets. Today's search of hundreds of pieces of luggage from the Zurich
flight didn't produce any drug hits.

Inside the terminal working the crowd of an arriving Korean Air flight for
foodstuffs are Audrey Portiss, and her six-year-old beagle, Ben, of the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Ben has been trained to sniff out plants, meats, sandwiches and other
foodstuffs.

"When Ben indicates a hit, he stands by the luggage," Portiss says. "He
finds a lot of meats and plants."

Portiss gives Ben a treat whenever he finds banned items.

The Koreans smile and gesture as Ben races past their luggage. They try to
pat him but the dog doesn't slow down.

Portiss said travellers are given a $400 fine for not declaring the banned
items, which are all seized and incinerated.

The items could cause the spread of foot and mouth and other diseases in
Canada.

Dogs are also used to detect currency being hidden by people leaving or
entering the country. Amounts of more than $10,000 have to be declared.

In the past month, 35 money smugglers were nabbed at Pearson and $856,600
in cash was seized. This year there have been 266 seizures worth some $5.9
million.

EXPLOSIVES

The airport authority also has a pack of canines to detect traces of
explosives and material used for making bombs to be left in the airport
terminals.

And if the dogs don't find the dope, chances are officer Wilson Doan and
his unit will.

Doan, the chief of commercial operations, and his partner operate an X-ray
van through which luggage is placed as it is unloaded from the arriving jets.

The X-ray can detect traces of drugs, explosives and other contraband.

They also have a fibre optic camera that can be operated with a joystick
and lowered inside boxes or hard-to-get areas to locate contraband.

"Sometimes it is like searching for a needle in a haystack," Doan said. "We
have so many genuine business containers."

Two years ago the unit inspected 20,000 containers and made 470 seizures
totalling 12,500 kilos of drugs worth $122 million.

Aside from drugs, a top priority of customs is stopping terrorists and
other undesirables from reaching Canadian soil.

Officers nightly check the names of arriving international passengers
against those on customs and police databases.

"The program identifies people who are fugitives or pose a risk," says
Supt. Ricardo Ramnarace. "We look for indicators of deception and question
their travel."

Unit members are sent lists of flights and passengers as they get on
international flights bound for Pearson. They then select, either through
citizenship, travel pattern or name, those to undergo checks.

Customs officers also carefully check passports and the paper trail of
ticket purchases.

SUPER DATABASE

The police computer contains information from U.S. and British police and
discussions are under way for a super database using information from all
G-8 countries.

"We work with different enforcement agencies," Ramnarace says. "We try to
identify people who may pose a threat to the safety of Canada."

He says part of their job is to collect intelligence and identify smuggling
activities.

"Our mandate is also to identify smuggling patterns," Ramnarace says. "We
are looking for patterns we haven't seen before."

The unit has had a number of successes, arresting criminals or fugitives
before they could set foot in Canada. One of those was Mehran "Ron"
Sepehry, 46, of San Jose, Calif., who was convicted 11 times of exposing
himself to women. He was nabbed in November 2002 after being the subject of
an FBI alert.