Narcos PQ: increase in the number of cocaine seizures to be expected

Law enforcement predicts a marked upsurge in cocaine seizures in Canada in 2022, including that which South American cartels are flying here.

• Read also: Cocaine enters first class on Air Canada

• Read also: Perilous journey in Colombia, country of the cartels

This is what our Bureau of Investigation was able to learn from an internal report by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which is trying to prevent this drug from crossing its approximately 1,200 ports of entry spread across from the country.

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These CBSA forecasts tend to corroborate the revelations that a member of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel made to our Bureau of Investigation, as we reported last Friday.

This drug trafficker, who also acts as a police informant, claims that he and other drug exporters hide hundreds of kilos of cocaine each year on board Air Canada planes flying direct between Bogota, Colombia, and Montreal or Toronto.

As soon as the plane arrives at its destination, these 50 to 75 kg shipments of coke by air freight through legitimate cargo – or sometimes even in the baggage compartments – are immediately collected by corrupt employees on the pay of the cartels before inspection border agents.

PANDEMIC BETTER CONTROLLED

Such a situation will worsen as the COVID-19 pandemic comes under control, predicts the CBSA.

“Peaks (…) of air cargo seizures are expected as organized crime groups take advantage of the fact that transport networks begin to return to normal and increase their volumes”, perhaps we read in this analysis report produced by the federal agency and to which we had access.

The CBSA « expects cover-up methods » to import cocaine « into the structure of aircraft will become more common. »

The agency also fears the increased use by these criminal organizations of drug couriers among travelers.

MORE CONSUMERS

In 2021, Canadian border agents seized half as much cocaine as in 2017, due to the drop in air traffic caused by the pandemic, according to data obtained by our Bureau of Investigation from the CBSA.

However, the agency expects a turnaround as the worst of the health crisis seems to have passed.

Widespread increases in coke seizures are predicted for all modes of transport under scrutiny, including air, sea, post and land.

“Cocaine remains the stimulant most used by the Canadian population,” recalls the CBSA in this report.

She adds that « the pandemic has drawn more and more users into drug use » and has « highlighted the flexibility of cocaine trafficking groups that have kept the product available around the world. »

Interceptions of postal parcels containing cocaine have skyrocketed in Canada and around the world during the pandemic, according to the CBSA.

Source: Canada Border Services Agency