The Canada Border Services Agency, in Halifax, says its officers seized 32 kilograms of cocaine, after finding the drugs hidden in a shipment of beans, from Cartagena, Colombia. Two men from the Montreal area face charges. Border officials say they found the drugs in 122 cans, with false bottoms, during a routine container search on 01 Oct. Dominic Mallette, the agency's chief of operations in Nova Scotia, said, according to News Bite press release, though Colombia is known for drug exporting, it wasn't the reason for the search. "We do, often, target for those countries, but in this case, we were not, necessarily, targeting for the fact it was coming from there," Mallette said. "It just happened to be a good, random examination".
He said thanks to state-of-the-art equipment, officials were able to see the contents of some of the cans were more dense than they should've been, had they been carrying beans alone. "They put in the cocaine in there, put a false bottom to close it, then added sand". The cans were in a shipment destined for a legitimate food importer in Saint-Jerome, Quebec. Border officials called RCMP, and an investigation was launched. Federal officials estimate the drugs are worth $4 million, on the street, which Mallette said is about average for the size of seizures the Port of Halifax sees. He estimated the seizures happen four to five times a year. "I wish it was every day, but it's not," he said. The names of the men charged have not been released.
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