Border services officers at Toronto Pearson Airport in Mississauga recently seized a large amount of a potentially deadly anesthetic drug from a traveller who’d arrived on a flight from England.
The Canada Border Services Agency said on Friday its officers scooped up 15 kilograms of ketamine as passengers on the flight made their way through customs at Canada’s biggest and busiest airport.
The federal agency didn’t say when the seizure was made nor did it reveal what charges, if any, were laid as a result.
While the CBSA didn’t reveal the street value of the recovered drug, previous seizures suggest that amount of ketamine can be worth nearly $1 million on the street.
This past Dec. 12 at Pearson, border services officers seized 53 kilograms of ketamine, potentially worth several million dollars, from a traveller who’d landed on a flight from Germany.
Both the CBSA and RCMP have described ketamine as a dangerous and potentially lethal substance and say they’re constantly on the lookout for it at airports and other points of entry across the country.
Insp. John McMath, officer in charge of the RCMP’s Toronto airport detachment, said following several ketamine busts last year at Pearson that the drug is “a strong anesthetic” and its use “has been the cause of many deaths in Canada. The RCMP is acting to protect Canadians from dangerous drugs that harm our communities. The importation of a narcotic like ketamine is a serious offence … and a conviction may result in a lengthy prison sentence.”
Police have also described ketamine as an odorless and colourless drug used as a medical anesthetic in liquid form. However, it’s often illicitly sold in powder form, authorities say.
(Cover photo: Canada Border Services Agency X)
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