Security at Prince Albert Airport intercepted several bags of marijuana last Thursday, after receiving a tip that a smuggler had hidden them in a box of laundry detergent.
The shipment was bound for Wollaston Lake, according to Rick Sanderson of the Prince Albert Grand Council. He said it’s the largest marijuana bust at the airport since northern First Nations partnered with Transwest Air to post a security agent there last December.
According to the tipster, Sanderson said, the smuggler had moved drugs through the airport before.
“We received information that it was being transported in the past by a suspected dealer and basically it was found in a routine search,” Sanderson said. “It was being transported in a detergent box.”
Sanderson said the information was forwarded to the Prince Albert Police Service. He said the amount of marijuana, combined with the separate bags, led security to believe that the woman was attempting to traffic the drugs.
Police confirmed that they arrested the woman while she was waiting to board the plane. According to Sgt. Travis Willie of the Prince Albert Police Service, the marijuana weighed in at 4.64 ounces in total. Willie said the woman was charged with possession and is due to appear in provincial court on April 27.
According to Sanderson, the airport’s security guard spends far more time dumping alcohol than busting marijuana smugglers. He said that the guard has seized more than 300 bottles of booze passing through the airport so far.
