Is Your Bag Safe? How a New Airport Drug Scheme Targets Innocent Travelers | Your Morning

Innocent passengers traveling out of some Canadian airports are getting caught up in a drug trafficking scheme because of switched luggage tags.A new W -5 investigation uncovered at least 17 passengers flying from Canada.They were detained this past year after their bag tags were switched to suitcases carrying drugs.Avery Haynes, host and managing editor of W -5, is here this morning to share more on what their exclusive investigation found.I was shocked when you posted this, Avery.I could not believe it.

believe that this was even happening.It has changed the way that I travel because I never...

You travel a lot.I travel a lot and I never thought about this little tag being the difference between your bag getting somewhere or you being accused of dealing drugs, smuggling drugs.Okay, how is this working?Okay, so what happens is you take your bag to the airport and you check it in and it goes on the conveyor belt back into the area that you never get access to.Yeah.There are 4 ,000 cameras at Pearson Airport and as you mentioned, 16 of the cases happened at Pearson.

But those cameras are not always monitored and there are blind spots and all it takes is for one corrupt baggage handler or ramp handler to unstick this off your luggage and put it onto a bag full of drugs.Now that bag full of drugs is traveling to the same destination as you and if it makes it They're usually air tags in the luggage of drugs.Somebody on the other end is going to pick it up and take it.Your bag, which now doesn't have a tag, is either popped onto the plane tagless, or what they do is they put a rush tag on, which is what they put on if your bag gets lost or damaged.And your bag makes it so you may never know.We've identified 17 cases.

We have no idea how many Canadians may have been traveling with their tag attached to drugs, and they don't even know it.the other end they see a rush tag on it they see no tag on it yeah or in some cases that we've identified what happens is they actually snip the tag so you have a tag that has nocode on it, but the drug bag has the other half.

So if you get caught, you have to now explain, well, that's not my bag.Well, I want to play for everybody a clip of Nicole.This is one of those people who got caught in the middle of this scheme.Have a listen.

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

At that point, Avery, what do you do?Well, she had 20 .50 kilos of meth.on her in this bag that was not hers.She was on a flight from Toronto to Auckland, New Zealand.Luckily, the drugs were found in Vancouver, so she was dealing with it there.We've identified cases of people who have been trapped in places like the Dominican Republic.

Three Canadians trapped for months trying to prove that that bag was not theirs.Unbelievable.What's the RCMP response to this?Because we're dealing with drugs here and trafficking.The RCMP are making these arrests.They're frustrated because they're now having to convince other countries that Canadians are not guilty of smuggling drugs.

Often what they'll use is surveillance camera from the airports to prove the drugs, the bags that somebody came in on.I will say there are some very easy tips for what you can do to protect yourself when you travel, and this is what I do now.Okay, tell us what you do now.This is what I do now.When you go to the airport, you take a picture of you with your bag, preferably on the scale to show the weight of your bag, because you have to think, if they're switching the tags, what if they put something in your bag and that's even harder to do so and luggage trackers because then you can at least show look this is where I've got a I've got a tag in my luggage so my this is where my bag is and this drug bag is not mine interesting so you do this now this is what I do now and this is what all the people I've spoken to have been victims of this do and since this story first aired on CTV last night I've been contacted by other peoplewho say the same thing has happened to them.

A woman told me that she was detained for seven hours overseas.Her three -year -old daughter was taken away from her and detained in another area.

I mean, it's scary stuff.I know.And I know you've got some follow -ups coming as well, including a new post this morning that you'll want to go and check out.Avery, thanks for coming in studio.Thank you.Avery is, of course, the host and managing editor of W5.

Eastern on CTV and on Crave.