Have you ever watched the program ‘Border Security: Australia’? If you have, you’ll know that Australian border-control officials are some of the toughest in the business, taking no kak from no one. However, one unwitting elderly couple managed to slip through the system, after it emerged that their bags had been lined with methamphetamine while they were away in Canada.
The couple from Sydney, a 72-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman, had won a competition for a trip to Canada. Included in the trip were two free luggage bags for them to pack to their hearts content before travelling abroad. Sounds like a sweet deal, doesn’t it?
Well, the couple returned from their trip and told officials at Sydney airport that they “had some concerns about their bags”. Which could mean anything really, it could mean that one of them had gone senile and thought the bag was turning into a lemur – but in this case the elderly couple had a hunch that something serious was afoot.
That something serious was the 3,5 kilograms (7,7 pounds) of meth stashed within the lining of each bag.
Officials believe that the bags were swapped in Canada, and that the competition was part of an elaborate scam that saw the elderly couple basically sign up to become drug mules.
Said Perth airport police commander David Bachi:
The organisers of this scam went to great lengths to provide a facade of legitimacy. Thankfully the travellers contacted Customs and didn’t dismiss their concerns, allowing us to make the arrest.
The authorities arrested a 38-year-old Canadian man at the airport on the same day that the couple returned and have since charged him with importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.
Good on ya, Australia!
[Source : Google News]
