Gangs infiltrating Canadian airports
Canada’s airport security has been compromised by hundreds of workers who have used their security clearances to smuggle drugs and people into the country, according to a new police report.
Project Spawn, a two-year RCMP inquiry into hundreds of police investigations at Canada’s eight largest airports, has identified nearly 60 active gangs infiltrating airports, concentrating on Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport and Vancouver International Airport.
The Globe and Mail has obtained a 22-page declassified summary of the Project Spawn conclusions, theglobeandmail.com
which show the Mounties reviewed files from 2005 to 2007 and concluded that hundreds of people were suspected of involvement in smuggling during that time – 298 of whom were current or former airline employees.
Not all the cases culminated in charges and convictions.
The report says that federal laws prevent federal agencies from sharing information about such chases that would allow better screening of airport employees.
Project Spawn was completed in the spring, and its findings were released by the RCMP to Senator Colin Kenny this month.
The senator said the conclusions buttress those made by the national-security committee he chairs, and are likely to soon be reiterated by a federal commission of inquiry report on the 1985 Air India terrorist bombings that killed more than 330 people.
“Where you have fertile ground for organized crime, you also have fertile ground for terrorists,” Mr. Kenny said.
The Mounties “have come up with very significant numbers of people who meet the definition of organized crime within the airports,” he said, adding, “It’s significant these people are able to operate with impunity.”
The senator then expressed a harsh criticism of Transport Canada, which he argues should inspect airport workers on their way into and out of work.