By Gurmukh Singh, IANS
Toronto : As the world celebrates the Christmas season, Canadian law-enforcement agencies have unearthed a drug cartel that used Bibles to smuggle contraband into the country.
The cartel has been busted at the country’s busiest Pearson International Airport here.
The smugglers had unglued Bible covers and put drugs in plastic bags inside before fixing them back.
Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA), which mans all the exit and entry points, including airports, told the local media that the drug cartel came to light when they arrested two men separately this month carrying the drugs in Bibles.
The men came from Barbados and Guyana in the Caribbean. The market value of the drugs seized is said to be over Canadian $850,000 (US$861,919).
Expressing shock over the seizure, a CBSA official said: “Bibles are what people read for spiritual support and not for smuggling drugs. This is not something we see on a regular basis.”
The official said they unearthed the smuggling cartel when they became suspicious because the Bibles were heavier than usual.
CBSA officials made the first seizure on Dec 11 with the arrest of a 21-year-old man from Barbados who carried four kg of coke hidden in the holy books.
The drug, valued at $550,000, was sealed into the binding of a Bible and other books.
The second arrest was made the very next day when a man from Guyana was held with 2.5 kg of coke hidden in the Bible and the false bottom of his suitcase. It was valued at $310,000.