Canada - How crime groups infiltrate and exploit Metro Vancouver's docks

[S.J.B.]

Drug pipeline: How crime groups infiltrate and exploit Metro Vancouver's docks
Kim Bolan
Vancouver Sun
May 9th, 2015

METRO VANCOUVER -- More than two dozen of the longshoremen unloading container ships on the docks of Metro Vancouver are Hells Angels, their associates, other gangsters or people with serious criminal records, a Vancouver Sun investigation has found.

The infiltration of gangsters and criminals into the port workforce is perpetuated by a longtime employment practice that allows existing union members to nominate friends, relatives and associates when new jobs become available.

Police say organized crime maintains this foothold on the waterfront for strategic purposes — so drugs and other contraband can be smuggled in some of the more than 1.5 million containers that pass through the four container terminals at Port Metro Vancouver every year.

Just over three per cent of containers arriving here are checked by the Canada Border Services Agency.

"It is a concern to us. We feel that a lot of the illegal drugs that come into this country come in through our ports," said Det.-Staff. Sgt. Len Isnor, the country's top law enforcement expert on the Hells Angels. Isnor, who works for the Ontario Provincial Police, has testified at several major B.C. cases involving the biker gang.

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[my3rdeye]

This not new its been like that for decades. Port of montreal is even worse. Kind of funny customs harassed me every time i come back but dont search 97 percent of containers.

 

[S.J.B.]

Smuggler’s messages reveal how drugs easily pass through Vancouver’s port
Kim Bolan
National Post
May 11th, 2015

PART TWO OF A SPECIAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE VANCOUVER WATERFRONT

VANCOUVER — How could the Port of Vancouver be misused by organized crime?

It’s not that hard, according to encrypted messages intercepted by police that detailed an exchange between one Vancouver man and the Ontario-based leader of a major international drug ring three years ago.

Mohamed Reza Amin Torabi told gang boss Nick Nero he had a contact person within the port who could control the movement of containers full of South American cocaine.

All he needed was the name of the company shipping the container to Canada and the actual container number, Amin Torabi explained.

“Hi bro. I am with my buddy. He is ready any time. All the ship come from south come to port here. I need transporter name and container number when U ready,” Amin Torabi, nicknamed ‘Big Guy,’ said in a May 2012 BlackBerry message.

Read the full story here.