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An Ontario man has recently been charged with two drug charges following his arrest by members of the RCMP. The RCMP had been called in after Canada Border Services Agency officers became suspicious. They had emptied the man’s bag, but they felt it was still too heavy. After RCMP officers did some digging, they say they found 2.9 kilograms of what they believe to be heroin hidden beneath a false door.
The man had been flying from Frankfurt to Calgary when he was stopped and arrested. It is not clear why agency officers needed to look in his bag to begin with or if they wrongfully singled him out. It is likely that this will be addressed during court itself.
What may make this a difficult case to prove for the Crown is that just discovering drugs in between layers of the man’s suitcase is not enough to convict him of drug trafficking. The prosecution must also show that the man knowingly was smuggling the drugs into the country. It is always possible that someone else put the drugs into his bag without him knowing. Even though we think we always keep a close eye on our bags, there are certainly times when they are out of our sight.
This is not the only case of someone being charged with trafficking drugs into the country through the Calgary airport. Another man was charged earlier in the year for allegedly importing 6.7 kilograms of heroin. Border Services agents also said that he had tried to hide the drugs under a false door in his suitcase.
Source: The Calgary Herald, “Heroin seized at Calgary airport, Ontario man arrested,” Clara Ho, May 30, 2014
