Messed-up maple syrup: Crafty tactics complicate Canada's fight to stop illegal drugs at the border

The Canadian border agency is in a constant game of cat-and-mouse with criminal organizations that are trying to import dangerous narcotics as well as the ingredients for fentanyl — sometimes through "creative" means, says a senior border official.

In an interview with CBC's The House as part of the program's ongoing coverage of the toxic drug crisis, Aaron McCrorie, vice-president of intelligence and enforcement at the Canada  Border Services Agency (CBSA), said officers have seen a wide variety of "innovative" methods to smuggle drugs.

"We see shipments being concealed in in machine parts. Being dissolved in liquids and being shipped as maple syrup, for example. Being hidden in baking tools," McCrorie told host Catherine Cullen.

"It's an ever-evolving game where we're constantly looking at new and different tactics to smuggle drugs into the country or out of the country." 

An average of 21 people die every day in Canada from the toxic drug crisis. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, is involved in many of those deaths.

But a significant portion of the fentanyl in Canada — or the substances used to manufacture them — have their origins overseas.

According to the CBSA, 496 grams of fentanyl was seized in the first half of this year, along with nearly 31,000 kilograms of other narcotics, drugs and chemicals over the first two quarters of 2023.

Two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose.

Among the tools used by CBSA in its work to stop the influx of drugs are dog sniffer teams, like the one visited by The House at the Lansdowne border crossing in eastern Ontario.

Speaking with Cullen, McCrorie reiterated what The House heard from the RCMP earlier this month: that criminal organizations in Canada produce fentanyl both for domestic consumption and to sell abroad.

Key markets for Canadian fentanyl include the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, law enforcement officials say.

CBSA is charged with intercepting the shipments, whether they're being imported or exported. 

"The challenge for us is they're constantly changing," McCrorie said.

"We're constantly on the lookout for new and different ways of concealment, sharing that information with their frontline staff and folks like our dog team so that they can successfully interdict drug shipments coming into the country."