HIGH STAKES

Drug mules risk jail -- and lives -- for unscrupulous
traffickers

The vacation to paradise begins with a graduate course at drug
swallowing school.

Freshly recruited from the Toronto area with the promise of a free
trip to a sunny isle and a little mad money on the side, neophyte
smugglers are instructed in the art of using their bodies to carry
drugs past police and customs officials.

"They're taught right there on the spot," says RCMP Staff Sgt. Bill
Matheson. "They're told what to eat and what's the best way to swallow
the stuff."

Police said the couriers, who can get down as much as three kilos of
drugs, are allowed to choose whether they want to swallow large or
small drug pellets, depending on their stomach muscles. The drugs are
wrapped inside condoms, cut-off tips of surgical gloves or even balloons.

It's not uncommon for six couriers to be taking the day-long course at
the same time in a foreign hotel room, learning how to deal with
customs officers as well as how to force the money-making cargo down
their throat.

"These groups are very organized," says Matheson, as Mounties brace
for the expected smugglers during the March break. "Who else would
have a courier swallowing school?"

By the end of this month police estimate at least a dozen drug
couriers will be arrested at Pearson International Airport trying to
smuggle dope on their bodies or in suitcases as they return home from
March break.

SHATTERED LIVES

RCMP and Canada Customs officers are on high alert, screening
thousands of passengers returning from the sun during this busy
travelling season.

Unscrupulous traffickers know this and have hand-picked teenage girls
to act as couriers to bring back drugs hidden under their clothes.

Police say more than 140 couriers, or mules, get caught yearly at
Pearson and in nearly all cases their lives are shattered after being
thrown in jail.

The risks for smugglers can be great, even deadly.

"There are a number of organized crime groups doing this," he says.
"The people running the organization are ruthless and are only
concerned about their drugs."

He says the traffickers have been known to "get rid" of mistrusted or
trouble-making swallowers.

"If you anger them, they're known to wrap the coke in such a way that
it breaks inside a person," Matheson says. "The smuggler dies
instantly if the package breaks inside them."

Jennifer Massa, 20, of Toronto, tried to sneak cocaine into the
country and the consequences were fatal. She died last October at
Etobicoke General Hospital after packets of coke burst in her
digestive tract after she arrived at Pearson from Jamaica.

An inquest to study what could have been done to prevent her death is
slated for next month in Toronto.

Of course, jail is also another consequence faced by the drug
mule.

"A lot of these people don't think of the ramifications of smuggling
until the cell door clangs shut behind them," Matheson says. "At this
point it finally hits home."

Couriers come in all ages, sizes and ethnic groups. Police said a pair
of North York sisters, aged 20 and 19, were busted last September with
more than $105,000 in coke and hash oil hidden on their bodies.

Police and Customs officers allege the pair swallowed some of the
drugs, inserted some in their vaginas and a quantity of hash was found

moulded into the soles of their shoes.

Things went wrong for the nervous college students when they were met
by Customs detector dogs Shad and Cyris patrolling the passenger
arrival lounge.

It didn't take long before the dogs smelled the hash in their shoes
and sat beside them, indicating a drug find.

The sisters' week-long trip to a sunny island had gone well prior to
their return to Canada: Their airfare and accommodation were paid by
drug dealers in Toronto and they were each given $500 in spending
money. Then, on the last day, they were fitted with the drugs and were
to be paid a commission of $7 a gram for the coke brought back and
about $3 a gram for the marijuana.

However, cops got to the pair before they could complete their
delivery and the two women were charged with importing a controlled
substance into Canada. They return to court May 6.

In another incident, an 18-year-old Toronto teen and her 17-year-old
sister were nabbed last January after returning from Jamaica with
three kilos of hash and a kilo of cocaine -- worth about $225,000 --
hidden in the false side of a suitcase. The two are now awaiting a
trial in Brampton.

Police suspect the sisters' week-long trip was paid for by Toronto
drug kingpins, who wanted them to bring the drug-filled bag back.

Matheson and his partner, Sgt. Len Lanza, have heard the same stories
many times before from couriers they've questioned.

"Usually the couriers are treated quite well during their holidays,"
he says. "Then somebody appears at the hotel on the last day."

He said the dealer will use veiled threats against couriers warning
them not to lose the drugs or there'll be repercussions. They even
claim to know someone working in Customs at Pearson who'll look the
other way.

"They're told that this is not a kid's game," Matheson says. "At this
point their minds are racing a mile a minute."

After the warnings, the dealers "prepare" the mules by duct-taping
thin packages of drugs to their legs, stomachs or crotch areas before
driving them to the airport for the flight home.

"They also make sure their loose-fitting clothes fit right and there
are no bulges," Matheson says.

Despite the many precautions taken for the trip, the risks were enough
to scare one courier straight.

Greg, 43, who said he smuggled more than $100,000 in hash oil during
four trips to Jamaica, saw first-hand what happens to the failed courier.

"I didn't have the nerve to do it any more," Greg says. "My friends
were getting popped and I felt my number was coming up next."

Greg says on each trip he brought back about two kilos of oil, worth
about $25,000, which were packed into condoms and taped to his crotch
and buttocks area. The money was good and there was also the added
thrill that smuggling brought.

"It was extremely lucrative," he says. "It was a great adrenalin rush
to beat the system."

'NERVOUS WRECK'

He said his week-long trips were made in one year and his contact only
showed up to meet him on the last day of his holiday.

"They showed me what to do, then I began packing myself," Greg says.
"By my last trip I had lost my cool and was a nervous wreck."

Canada Customs spokesman Duncan Smith said March break is a busy time
for his officers but they're ready for the drug mules.

"We have a number of indicators we look for," he said. "More and more
we are targeting particular flights from certain countries."

He said officers use a wide range of high-tech equipment in their
fight against drugs.

Canada Customs and the Mounties made 280 seizures last year at Pearson
stopping more than 4,375 kilos of drugs, worth $129 million, from
hitting the streets.

Police said cocaine, marijuana, hash and liquid hash are the
smugglers' drugs of choice and they usually arrive on flights from
Aruba, Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana and South America.

Despite knowing as much as the smugglers, police realize some people
are still going to be lured by offers of a vacation in exchange for
carting a little extra luggage across the border.

"There's no such thing as a free trip," says Matheson. "People should
not bring back bags if they don't know what the contents are."