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You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.A worker checks tags on yet-to-be claimed luggage in its baggage claim area at O'Hare International Airport December 28, 2004 in Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Tim Boyle /Getty ImagesNever let it be said drug smugglers aren’t ingenious, especially if no one is trying very hard to stop them. CTV’s astonishing-but-also-kind-of-not-astonishing reporting about organized crime groups operating behind the nominal security barrier at Toronto’s Pearson Airport lays bare a truly expert gaming of what is apparently a mostly unguarded system.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorThe story as it stands is about drugs, incoming and outgoing. But it could easily be about something far worse. This scam is alarmingly reminiscent of the sort of security lassitude that led directly to the Air India bombing in 1986, at a cost of 268 Canadian lives and 39 others.This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againWhat’s most astonishing about it, perhaps — but also not that astonishing in 2026, when much of Canada seems to be operating without adult supervision — is how easy the scam was to detect.On the departures level of the scam, airport workers — six of whom have been arrested over the past year, according to CTV — have allegedly brought in a suitcase full of drugs, stolen the label off an unsuspecting passenger’s suitcase to stick on the drug bag, and left the unsuspecting passenger’s suitcase behind at Pearson. The passenger’s bag would then have to be sent to the owner on a later flight. Multiple red flags.Needless to say, the victims of this scam have had, at the very least, the scare of their lives. One Ontario couple was arrested in the Dominican Republic and not allowed to come home for months. As CTV pointed out, some of the countries these bags were destined for impose the death penalty for drug-related crimes.You might hope it would be easy to prove your innocence. The shock and confusion on your face would be obviously genuine, to a well-trained officer. A quick check of video footage from the originating airport should confirm the passenger checked no such bag. And presumably someone with hotel reservations in, say, Singapore — even if their primary purpose was to smuggle drugs — would bring something along with them other than a suitcase full of drugs. Clean underwear, perhaps. Clean socks.But I sure wouldn’t want to have to make that case to a Singaporean border guard. This is Third World garbage happening at Canada’s busiest airport.People are smuggling drugs into Pearson as well as out of it, reportedly. On the arrivals level of the scam, things are no less brazen.Even if you somehow snuck into the international baggage claim at Pearson and tried to walk out with a bag, you would in theory be in trouble because you wouldn’t have your little sheet from customs and immigration to hand in on your way out. (That procedure always seemed utterly pointless to me. I have since reconsidered.)So instead the crooks just get a baggage handler behind the scenes to yoink the incoming bag off the conveyer belt leading to the international baggage claim and instead put it on a conveyer belt leading to domestic arrivals. Someone marches in to the terminal, picks up the bag, and marches out.The domestic baggage hall at Pearson is supposed to be a secure area too, but it never really has been. If you’re picking someone up, in my experience, you can just walk in when someone else walks out, greet your guest, and catch up while baggage handlers take their sweet time getting bags from plane to carousel.This is all outrageous and worrying enough on its own. Quite apart from anything else, our current federal government has invested rather heavily in the notion that Canada is not a significant source of illegal drugs. Yet the federal government has been almost eerily quiet. Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree did have to answer a question about it in the House of Commons this week. He pointed to the six arrests as evidence that someone is keeping tabs on things, and fair enough.But if a significant percentage of the perpetrators were being caught, you might imagine the scam would stop. And it apparently hasn’t. In which case, frankly, drugs are the least of our worries.One of the most basic airline-safety measures implemented at the height of the airplane-terrorism era was not to let bags fly on airplanes without their owners. They call it “positive passenger bag matching.” It’s why, when a passenger with a checked bag doesn’t show up to board the flight, you have to sit there stewing in your own bile while they find that passenger’s bag and take it off the plane.The assumption (which has since proven less than 100 per cent reliable) was that no one would want to blow themselves up with a suitcase bomb. Pan Am flight 103, which exploded over Scotland in 1988, was brought down by an unaccompanied bag. As was Air India flight 182, two years earlier.Canadians need to know someone is in charge. On so many fronts, they have no reason to be confident. The fix here was and is so easy: Screen airport workers the way we screen passengers. Maybe screen them even harder. How are Canadians supposed to explain this scandal to themselves that doesn’t involve corruption at far higher levels than a baggage handler or absolute bone-idleness?National Post cselley@postmedia.com Get the latest from Chris Selley straight to your inbox Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.