The criminal justice system can be daunting, but you don’t need to go through it alone. Our Criminal lawyers are here to guide you every step of the way.
Contact Our Firm
When Canada Border Services Agency officers and other members of law enforcement attempt to hold people accountable for bringing drugs into the country, they often track shipments from overseas. If someone in Toronto receives a package with drugs in it, it may be easy to arrest the recipient and charge him or her with importing drugs. Realistically, however, there must be much more for the charge to stick.
Anyone can receive a package. If a drug trafficker sends some cocaine to an individual in Toronto, however, the package is the only thing that is tying the recipient to the drugs. Did he or she order them? Is he or she part of a larger drug ring and it’s his or her job to receive the package? Or, did the recipient merely receive the package unknowingly or by mistake?
In a recent cocaine importing case, a Toronto man was arrested after he picked up two packages of chocolate candies. The packages had been sent from Colombia and seemed like innocent candies, but border agents discovered they were filled with cocaine. Though it may look incriminating for the man, the Crown will need to make a closer link to the man and the cocaine to get him on a drug importing charge.
After the packages were seized, border agents worked with the Toronto police drug squad to investigate. They searched an apartment near Eglinton Avenue West and Dufferin Street where they apparently found more cocaine.
The 37-year-old man has been charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and unlawfully importing drugs.
Source: CityNews Toronto, “Toronto man charged after border agents seize cocaine-filled candies,” 11 Jan. 2014
