Trini woman held with $35M coke in Toronto

The woman, who lives in Montreal, was held after 50 kilos of cocaine were found hidden in shoes in her luggage as she disembarked from the flight from Piarco International Airport.

The woman is in jail and three young children who were accompanying her are now in the care of Chil-dren’s Aid, the government agency responsible for looking after children without parents.

“This is probably our largest cocaine seizure this year,” said Patrizia Giolti of the Canada Border Services Agency. Customs officers suspect the woman was trying to slip into Toronto among thousands of revellers arriving from the Caribbean for this weekend’s Caribana festival. Agents are trying to determine if the children belonged to the woman or if they were part of a ploy used by traffickers to help drug mules slip through Customs.

“Smugglers in the past have been known to travel with children,” said Giolti yesterday. “We have seen that before.” Giolti said the incident occurred early Friday after a flight from Trinidad arrived at Terminal 1.

She said the drugs, with a street value of about (Can) $7 million, were found stashed in luggage, largely in the soles of shoes and sandals. “There were a number of shoes involved,” Giolti said. “The drugs were inserted inside the shoes.”

She said officers became suspicious after the traveller became nervous when questioned. The name of the accused is not being released since doing so would identify the children.

The woman, a 43-year-old resident of Montreal, is expected to appear for a bail hearing in a Brampton court tomorrow.

In another seizure, a 45-year-old Toronto man was arrested last week at Pearson after Customs agents found 12 kilos of heroin, worth about TT$55 million, in the false bottoms of copper cooking pots.

“That is a first for us,” Giolti said. “I can’t recall any seizures in the false bottoms of pots.” The suspect arrived from the Caribbean.