Homeless Used As Mules for a Week In The Sun
By Tom Godfrey, Toronto Sun
HOMELESS MEN in Toronto are being recruited by organized crime to smuggle dope into Canada with offers of cash and stays in top Caribbean hotels, the RCMP say. The Mounties said the gangs hire scouts to scour hostels and shelters to find smugglers, who are flown to the Caribbean and paid to return to Canada after ingesting pellets of cocaine wrapped in condoms.
“This is a new trend we are experiencing,” Sgt. Frank Gougeon said. “It is a well-organized scheme that preys on the vulnerable.”
Gougeon said his drug officers have arrested six homeless men since last January trying to smuggle dope by swallowing it at Pearson airport.
He said nearly all the men are dressed as street people and have no fixed addresses.
“You can tell they’re homeless because they look the part,” Gougeon said, adding they are charged for importing a controlled substance.
CARIBBEAN RESORTS
The Mounties said the men are given a week, or sometimes two, at all-inclusive Caribbean resorts, where they’re met by handlers and instructed on what to eat and how to ingest the dope.
“They tell them what to do and say if they’re stopped by police,” Gougeon said. “There is a lot of money involved.”
He said the street-people are promised from $1,000 to $5,000 for smuggling an estimated 500 grams of coke, which can sell for about $60,000 on the streets.
Police said the gang members obtain Canadian passports and airline tickets for the smugglers, whose hotels, meals, and some expenses are paid for.
The Mounties said most of the men don’t care if they’re arrested and jailed, because then they’ll have a place to stay.
“Most of them don’t even have a place to live,” Gougeon said, adding many single moms are also recruited.