Bag-tag switching schemes cause innocent Canadians to be accused of drug smuggling | W5 22

As luggage is loaded onto a long -haul flight bound for Auckland, New Zealand, Canada border agents raid the plane.

He's like, get your stuff, you're getting off the plane.

Nicole and her family are marched off with a terrifying explanation.

You're all being detained for transporting narcotics.

W5 has obtained border agent notes that show her bags tested positive for suspected narcotics.

They brought out the bolt cutters and they cut the lock off and they opened up the bag.It was stuffed full of drugs.

20 .52 kilos, more than 45 pounds of meth.The bag tags showed Nicole's name, but the luggage wasn't hers.Nicole was detained for seven hours before the RCMP realized she was a victim of bag tag switching.

I took a video of it.It takes like five seconds, so it could have been anywhere.

Our exclusive data reveals a shocking surge in cases.At least 17 innocent passengers have been victims of bag tag switching in the last year.In all but one case the switch happened at Pearson Airport leaving passengers wrongly accused of smuggling drugs to countries around the world.The passengers were all eventually released but this is just what's being caught.An untold number of Canadians may have flown without even knowing that their bag tags had been used to transport drugs.

That bag is picked up by somebody on the other end and these other people hopefully just pick up their bag and have no idea.They just assume that the tag's gone missing.

Dieter Boheim is a retired police inspector who was also part of Toronto's airport intelligence unit.

I guarantee you the switching of the tag happens on a regular basis.Sometimes it gets detected but a lot of times it just doesn't get noticed.

Tag switching involves drugs leaving Canada, but Boheim says Pearson Airport is also a prime destination for organized crime groups who want to get drugs out.into Canada.

So the airplane becomes your vessel to move cocaine.

Charles is a ramp worker who's seen a lot during his two decades working at Pearson.

They're doing stuff that's illegal.They're putting stuff on planes that shouldn't be on planes.They're bringing stuff off planes.

We aren't identifying him to protect his job.

I don't think many people work alone on any of these things.I think it's a little bit of a group effort.

In the last year, the RCMP has arrested six ramp and baggage workers in connection with tag switching at Pearson.No one has been arrested for putting Nicole's tag on a suitcase filled with meth.Now when she travels, she videos her bag at the airport and uses a tracker as proof the bag she arrives with is the one she checked.Avery Haynes, CTV News, Toronto.