The Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP are investigating an attempt to import four kilograms of cocaine at the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport in which employees of a major aviation services company are allegedly involved, which is reminiscent of what happened during the Colisée anti-mafia investigation.
Posted at 4:46 p.m.
The two employees of the company ATS (Airport Terminal Services) were arrested on the evening of January 13, when they were finishing emptying the front cargo hold of an AeroMexico aircraft which had just arrived from Mexico and landed in Montreal.
According to a court document obtained by The Pressthe problems began for the two employees when a supervisor asked them to go to the rear hold of the aircraft to unload the passengers’ luggage.
The employees refused and the supervisor found it fishy. He then walked into the plane and saw the two ramp agents handling a box containing a backpack. The boss asked them what it was about and the employees answered “garbage”.
In a suspended ceiling
Suspicious, the supervisor waited for the two men to exit the aircraft and noticed that they appeared to be holding something under their now tied coats.
He asked them to stay put, but the employees did not obey. One of them said he had to go to the bathroom, but headed in the opposite direction, even though he has worked at the airport for a long time, the document reads.
The supervisor notified border services officers who retraced the movements of the two employees and found the first two kilograms of cocaine, covered in plastic wrap, on the floor of an isolated room in the airport and the other two in a suspended ceiling.
PHOTO FROM A COURT DOCUMENT
The two kilograms of cocaine found in the drop ceiling were wrapped in bubble wrap.
The customs officers then arrested the two employees. They then carried out preliminary tests on the bricks, the backpack and the cardboard box, and the results were positive for cocaine.
In January, the price of a kilogram of cocaine varied between 40,000 and 45,000 $ according to our information, before the drug was cut and resold on the street.
Suddenly attractive overtime
Border agents handed the file over to their colleagues at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who met with witnesses.
Of note, one of the supervisors said he found it odd that the two employees were asking for overtime that night when one of them “is the type not to do his own shift” and that the other never exceeds his hours, because he has another night job.
The two employees – who have no criminal record – have not yet been charged and the investigation is continuing, the company said. The Press RCMP C Division spokesperson in Montreal.
We emailed Airport Terminal Services headquartered in St. Louis, USA, but at the time of this writing we had yet to receive a response.
According to its website, the company ATS, which offers services such as loading and unloading of baggage, cabin maintenance and refueling, has been in existence for 47 years. It has at least 4,500 employees and more than 150 airline customers, and is present in 49 airports in Canada and the United States.
During the RCMP’s Colisée investigation against the Rizzuto clan of the mafia in the early 2000s, half a dozen employees of companies present on the grounds of Trudeau airport were arrested and convicted, but for imports much larger amounts of cocaine.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.