Suspected heroin found in suitcase at Calgary airport

CTV Calgary: Massive heroin seizure Border authorities have seized a large quantity of heroin from a man coming into Canada. He is facing drug charges.

Police have seized almost 3kg of suspected heroin at the Calgary airport and say the substance was concealed in a suitcase with a false bottom.

Canada Border Services and RCMP have charged 26-year-old Charles Roger Mukwaaya with two counts under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and say he was returning to Canada via Frankfurt.

Mukwaaya was referred for secondary examination when he came through the Calgary airport on May 24, 2014.

Candace Lyle, Chief of Operations at the Calgary International Airport says CBSA officers emptied the red, soft-sided, American Tourister suitcase and noticed it was excessively heavy and had been modified.

“The officer unzipped the lining and when you peel away the layer of that fabric you can see inside that it’s obviously been tampered with, there were screws missing , there’s a little bit of glue residue, there’s some plastic attached to the edges to hold down the plastic lining inside so we x-ray it. We see the anomaly on the x-ray and it shows and organic mass inside,” said Lyle.

About 2.9 kg of suspected narcotics were found in the suitcase and Mukwaaya was arrested for smuggling and turned over to RCMP.

RCMP further examined the bag and found that the suspected drugs were flat-packed with tape and inserted into the lining in the bottom of the suitcase.

“Three kilos of heroin, we don’t really know the purity of it at this time. A sample has been sent away for analysis to Health Canada and when we get those results back we can give you a better idea of the amount of dosages it would be worth on the street,” said RCMP Corporal Michael Badder, of the  Serious and Organized Crime Team.

Badder says 3 kg is significant and they are looking into where the suspected drugs were headed.

"This stuff here is more-or-less source-country or source-product, so the purity of this, and I'm going to go by previous experience in the samples we've sent away for analysis, is going to be relatively high, between 60 and 70 per cent, is my estimation," said Badder.

Mukwaaya is scheduled to appear in Calgary Provincial Court on May 30, 2014.

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