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Montreal Investigators allege the three workers were unloading cocaine, smuggled on flights arriving from the Dominican Republic.


Police arrested seven people in total, including the three who worked for Entreprises Cara food services a company that loads meals onto outbound planes. Investigators allege the three workers were also unloading cocaine, smuggled on flights arriving from the Dominican Republic.
Police recovered 16 kilograms in their investigation, which went back to August 2006. "Once a plane arrived in Montreal the employees had the responsibility to remove the drugs off the plane and move it out of the airport area," RCMP Insp. Andre Lemyre charged. It's not the first time the food service employees have come under scrutiny at Montreal's airport. Two years ago, 10 food service workers were arrested and over $5 million worth of cocaine was seized.
At the time, one reporter was able to walk right through Cara's front door and gain access to the airport's restricted areas.
"I just followed some employees in and put on a cooking uniform, and after that I was like a tourist," said Fabrice de Pierrebourg of the Journal de Montreal.
The service workers are subjected to criminal background checks but critics say that isn't enough. "If you're not going to search people coming to work then organized criminals will take advantage of it and smuggle things in and out and terrorists will take advantage of it as well," Liberal Sen. Colin Kenney said. Ottawa has spent $2 billion beefing up security at Canadian airports over the last five years. But the union representing customs agents says what it needs are more powers to search airport workers.

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