Drug mules being paid TT $20,000 per trip

Warrants have been issued for the arrest of three Trinidadians after Canadian authorities smashed what they have called one of the biggest drug smuggling rings ever between the Caribbean and Toronto. The warrants were issued for the three following the end of an investigation which unearthed evidence of hundreds of millions of dollars worth in heroin and hash oil being smuggled into Toronto over a one-year period. Canadian authorities did not say if the three wanted men are in Canada or Trinidad, or where in Trinidad they are from, but they did say that the authorities in Trinidad have been notified and are continuing investigations. The Trinidadian trio is among several Caribbean nationals from Bermuda, Antigua, Jamaica, Trinidad and Guyana, who have been involved in the drug smuggling operations. Canadian police said that the racketeers used a network of high school buddies as mules to bring suitcases of cocaine from Trinidad, paying them around TT $20,000 per trip.

They also had contacts within Canadian Customs and workers at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport to ensure the safe passage of the narcotics. On Friday, Staff Inspector of the Toronto Police Drug Squad Dan Hayes said that the smugglers were also using airport workers at the Piarco International Airport to conceal drugs in cargo containers on commercial flights to Toronto. Inspector Hayes said that workers at Pearson Airport would then remove the drugs and deliver them to members of the criminal organisation in Toronto. The investigation started last April after Canadian authorities were notified by their Trinidadian counterparts of the arrest of a ramp worker at Piarco. This was followed by a tip to Canada Customs that 102 kilos of cocaine had been concealed in two cargo containers from Trinidad to Toronto. The cocaine was discovered on the arrival of the aircraft, 42 kilos concealed in the false bottom of one container, and 60 kilos hidden in the roof of another.