Officers from the Canada Border Services Agency weren’t monkeying around when they opened a wooden carving from Uganda last week. The gorilla statue concealed a stash of heroin.
According to the CBSA, the Calgary commercial operations officers were examining a shipment of crafts from Uganda on Feb. 27 and noticed anomalies with the parcel.
“If things just don’t add up, they will examine the package closely,” said CBSA spokeswoman Lisa White. “They’ll open it up and have a look inside. In this case, they opened it up and it was labelled correctly, there were crafts in the package, but it just seemed odd to CBSA officers that these were being shipped.
“We looked closely at the crafts and opened one of the wooden carvings, and found that it was being used to conceal heroin,” she said,
The drugs, 65 grams of heroin, were turned over to the RCMP and an investigation was launched. The package was destined for Saskatoon.
White described the statues as keepsakes.
“They’re carvings that people can buy as souvenirs. Whether it was intentionally made for this purpose would be hard to say,” she said.
“It’s sophisticated concealment but, again, our officers are trained in examination techniques. We know what to look for.”
White said it’s the most significant drug discovery this year for CBSA officers, who have so far made 55 drug seizures in Calgary. They’ve also found 55 kilograms of khat, 70 grams of opium, 1,400 doses of steroids and 10 litres of the MDMA precursor chemical safrole in separate discoveries.
