Crime Tourism Is Exploding Across Canada
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Toxicity
5
sentences flagged
Summary
An international theft ring busted in Ontario, the largest drug seizure Manitoba has ever seen in its history, a restaurant owner is killed over an outstanding restaurant bill, and Cricket Canada corruption. And one story that will blow your mind if you re flying anywhere today with Air Canada.
Transcript
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And for what Canadians aren't realizing, people are coming from other countries around the world
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and coming in as tourists or whatever, committing the crimes and gathering their money and whatnot and leaving.
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An international theft ring busted in Ontario, the largest drug seizure Manitoba has seen in its history.
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Owen Sound, a restaurant owner, is killed over an outstanding restaurant bill
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And one story that will blow your mind if you're flying anywhere today with Air Canada.
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Joining me as always, Jim Lang for your crime update.
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Project Jet Setter, the international theft ring busted in Ontario.
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Durham Regional Police announced the results of Project Jet Setter,
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a years-long investigation in their international organized crime network
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accused of targeting homes, businesses, and individuals across Ontario.
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Police arrested 46 suspects, laid more than 1,500 charges,
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and linked the group to over 200 criminal incidents
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Investigators allege some suspects entered Canada
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illegally before participating in coordinated theft operations this is known as crime uh what's
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it what are they tourism crime tourism crime tourism and it was a great um term by the
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investigative detectives mike and and for what canadians aren't realizing people are coming from
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other countries around the world um and coming in as tourists or whatever committing the crimes
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in gathering their money and whatever whatnot and leaving and so for durham regional police
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which is east of the toronto area to arrest all these people and you saw the photos and realized
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all 47 were we're visitors to the country right it is it is shocking as a canadian that it's come to
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this a huge number of romanians as well this looks like it might have been coordinated uh through a
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romanian uh crime syndicate of some sort yeah but certainly uh a coordinated effort now here i do
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have a question about this and i i'm sure there's a good reason right okay it says this has been a
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years long several years long investigation uh 46 suspects 200 criminal incidents 2.6 million
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1500 charges a lot got done before we started laying charges here and before this investigation
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yeah led to the arrests of some people why do you think that is well we are used to watching
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law and order and other police and television crime shows why isn't it like that jim and that's
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the problem if you talk to officers um they have to really assemble a massive mountain of evidence
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and you know information even before they approach the crown right and say we're going to lay charges
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because well look they'll say they'll just get it thrown out by the judge so the canadian courts
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work different than american courts and when they're bringing charges like this they will
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have a mountain of evidence and information and you know counterfeit things they've gotten stolen
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goods and guns and drugs and whatnot so i think that's part of it is it takes time for the
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investigative officers to get all the information all the evidence that they need to go to the crown
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to go to the judge to get the warrants to make the arrest good god we love to take time in
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canada we love to take time we sure do everything that we do takes time now the other thing that's
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okay so maybe that needs to change that's my thought by the time 2.6 million dollars worth
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of damage is being done maybe maybe we need to change how much we take to the crown whatever
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the process is it just seems to me a lot of damage got done before arrests were made yeah and it's
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it's so hard because often that you come home you're in your house you were away what not you're
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like hey something's gone so you like you report it to the local police that this this and this
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was stolen but can you imagine being the cops okay we've got 35 people and the crown going we need
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more evidence we got 41 we need more evidence i mean the police must be endlessly frustrated with
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this process too well then then the the frustration is compounded that okay all these people were
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arrested that what are the odds they're all convicted in canadian criminal court system
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right now if they are convicted what's going to actually put them behind bars if it's their first
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conviction in canada or is a judge going to go yes you you're you've been charged you've been
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convicted you came here in a tourist visa we're going to only put you in jail this long and then
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send you home what is the process now and that's i think this is a a new game for everyone because
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this kind of thing criminal tourism was a pretty rare thing and now it's really growing yeah the
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fact that people would come to canada to visit commit all these crimes and go home yeah was
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something we just never heard of so now the courts and the judges and the crown and the laws have to
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almost catch up to what's going on i mean it seems so prevalent now that i feel like i could go online
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and book a crime my wife and i could go online pick a country and book a crime tour what's the
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purpose of your visit mr wixon oh jewel thief yeah yeah crying we're cat burglars oh stamp here you
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go welcome to my country yeah uh the largest drug seizure in manitoba history listen to this jim
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winnipeg police revealed details of a massive interprovincial drug investigation that resulted
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in 33 arrests and what authorities describe as the largest illicit drug seizure in manitoba history
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officers seized cocaine methamphetamine fentanyl cash vehicles and other assets connected to the
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organized trafficking networks uh the operation involved multiple police agencies across several
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provinces you know in an earlier show you and i talked about this trans canada highway
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and this just reeks of you know interprovincial i mean it's okay well think about it think about
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the thousands of tractor trailers on our highways in canada every day it's not possible to have
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enough police officers to stop and search every single one okay so here's the other thing manitoba
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is what we in the biz of uh logistics did you know that i'm in the business i do now what we in the
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biz of logistics call a hub absolutely is a major yeah it is a major logistics hub the double tractor
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trailers in manitoba absolutely and so it is especially from winnipeg brandon going into
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ontario going to the west going down to minnesota it is a hugely busy area the uh freight rail
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traffic that goes yeah you know trains uh two three kilometers long it seems as we were driving
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along you think that's a lot of containers there what's in those so it's not surprising to me but
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when you hear some of the things that they seized cocaine likely not produced in canada methamphetamine
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may be produced in canada fentanyl definitely not you know uh well maybe yeah produced here but
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definitely some of those elements are coming from one of the ports right well and but as sam cooper
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who's been on our tpl media before has pointed out that is part of the sticking point for a lot
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of the american politicians in the current u.s administration is the amount of fentanyl in canada
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is it a problem or not that is a big number a large weight of fentanyl and fentanyl has become
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such a lethal dangerous drug that's being mixed in by people buying black market molly and cocaine
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and pot and hash all of a sudden they don't realize there's fentanyl in it and there's an
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accidental overdose did jim just say molly i forgot he was a raver he's a raver from a way back
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so you know i think that this is a big deal for manitoba but once again i'm not surprised having
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just driven through that province how much actual logistics and how much it is sort of the center
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it's staggering well until you're out there you can't realize going both ways and all the highways
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how many big trucks and like you say they're almost like a tractor trailer trains with multiple
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trailers yeah because it's so flat out there it goes on forever uh so this is uh very interesting
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and you know what i thought was also very encouraging was that the police said that this
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is not the end of it that this is the head on the mushroom they're going after the root system yes
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of where this came from and because they have multiple agencies at multiple levels they have
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rcmp local police uh local provincial police in each of these cases this is uh they're going to
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use this moment to go and root out the source now think about the strain and policing now so you
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could be in the brandon manitoba police force or you know saskatoon or chicotomy quebec or
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you name the location in canada and all of a sudden you have a department that has to focus
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on stuff like this yeah which probably never happened before you have to think about these
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containers how do they for a future episode if you work at a container company or container yard
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or know something about this you're a future guest because i'd like to know how we handle
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the security of this you know because i've seen the container shipyard in halifax and it's big but
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the one in vancouver is three times as big and there's thousands of them and how in my hometown
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there are probably 150 000 containers in various yards how could they search every one i want to
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know i would love to know yeah every once in a while the the uh container yard near my home
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there's a fire is that right yeah every once in a while there's a container fire over there and i
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I think to myself, hmm, what started that fire?
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Here's a very, from the world of weird crime stories, also very sad,
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Owen Sound restaurant owner killing moves towards sentencing.
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and they've admitted their roles in the death of Owen Sound restaurant owner,
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Sharif Rahman, following a dispute over an unpaid restaurant bill.
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the case attracted international attention after the suspects fled canada and were later arrested
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overseas sentencing uh hearings are scheduled for july of this year i i'm i'm struggling believing
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they killed the guy over a disputed bill in a restaurant there must be something else to this
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that we don't know i mean that seems pretty extreme i don't agree with the bill and you
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kill the guy okay let me paint a scenario okay please do i don't want to pay my bill you owe me
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fifteen hundred dollars you haven't paid your bill in over a month that's a lot of espressos i know
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jim but the fight goes back and forth maybe somebody gets shoved somebody falls down they
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hit their head that's by the way be careful when you get into a physical altercation you could
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easily kill somebody absolutely it's called manslaughter all they need to do is hit their
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head and your life is over uh keep your hands to yourself if possible so on that note i wonder if
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that's what it was a struggle where these guys bullied the guy ended up beating him up beat him
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to death so i yeah i don't know if a bill would be the reason for that it is hard to imagine
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it the bottom line is even though these gentlemen are going to be sentenced it's such a needless
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death it's such a sad it's a sad story really i mean it really is and and three people were
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involved and think about the lives of these guys they got on a plane and they went to scotland to
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escape being convicted and now they're back yeah i know uh just an all-around shame you know i just
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think this goes to a bigger question like that the average canadian struggles when they read these
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stories you know why what would like i think canadians in general are very law-abiding people
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you hear stories who've lived 30 40 50 years never had a parking ticket never had a speeding ticket
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i've never you know never been in trouble with the law and i think that's more common than not
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in this country yeah i think most people are just trying to be good citizens exactly and do the
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right thing uh this was a a brutal example of the opposite that society can put upon us uh
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makes me think let's just get separate checks in the future
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this is wild cricket canada corruption scandal deepens the suspension of cricket canada
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uh has intensified scrutiny of allegations involving match fixing financial misconduct
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intimidation of players and alleged links to organized crime investigative reporting suggests
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criminal organizations may have exerted influence over part of the sports administration
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the scandal is now one of the biggest sports crime stories in canada this year and match fixing which
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is a huge problem because of gambling the the explosion of the gambling apps and online
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gambling and people don't realize it but betting on cricket is huge around the world yeah and big
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money and it's such a problem that the blue jays were going to have you know they have junior jays
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day oh yeah they were going to have a day to celebrate kicking cricket canada and they have
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to cancel it because of the allegations and everything involved with this story and cricket
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is a sport that's growing at a rapid pace across the country there are now high school cricket
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teams in a lot of schools in the country as well with the increase of the south asian community
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absolutely in Canada it's the sport uh that uh that we we got as a bonus right so and and some
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of the the Canadian now Canadian cricket players the quality they're they're world class yeah it's
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fantastic yeah it and you can see it there's now cricket fields yeah it's an engaging uh part of
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our communities uh this is sad it is sad how did they come back from this Jim you're from the
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sports world is there is there a road back to they just wipe the organization and begin again
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yes and there is precedent to that there were obviously a lot of problems with hockey canada
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a few years ago and they got rid of everybody and hired a whole new board of directors basically
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everyone was brand new and that's the only way to erase the stain of this is you'd have to appoint
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a new ceo cricket canada hire a whole new board and organization there have no connections to the
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people involved with this here's the problem anything that involves uh membership anything
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that involves sponsorship once you paint it with a negative brush like this it's tough to get the
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sponsors back it's tough to get the membership back the other thing that might happen is you
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might find that there's an opposing not opposing but an adjacent group that is now going to flourish
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that was waiting for this to happen because it sounds to me like the corruption here was
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widely noted see this is a big concern mike in general not just with cricket canada
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but with the so the advent of all the gambling apps and legalized gambling basically across the
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world where you can bet on everything and then take it to the next level with poly market
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you know will mark carney cut the ribbon at the detroit gordy hell bridge what did you take on
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the i took the under because he's out of country oh okay but uh but the point is so so when you
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have that kind of money and you can gamble in everything and anything it leads to corruption
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how could it not that eventually someone's going to try to you know skirt the rules for their own
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financial good the odds makers benefit the most so if that's the controller of this then the sport
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will never have a fair shake and it's you're finding like oh okay instead of scoring 30 runs
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this cricket match you just score 20 and then pull a hamstring or have a back tweak right then you
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leave the match when someone's bet heavy that and all of a sudden oh you know steve just won all
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this money it's highly suspicious yeah yeah what a coincidence i didn't even know you could pull
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that muscle playing cricket so okay right and uh but you know but it's a it's a great sport it's
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a global sport um you know if you think about all the countries involved they're all over the world
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it's growing in canada and it's it it tarnishes what is a great growing sport in the country and
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a lot of good people involved by some bad apples it's always the case speaking of bad apples wow
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this just in air canada you know i've often said about air canada their motto is
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we're not happy so you're not happy but it's not true that's not their motto it's just something
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i invented in my head they have uh first of all they've been targeted over the last uh several
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months over how they're handling customers yes and now this story uh from the world of crime
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The other one that I think came up was what was going on at the airport with smuggling.
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So Peel Regional Police, which serves Mississauga, Brampton, Caledon,
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and they're the police force that oversee the Pearson Airport.
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They charged a former Air Canada aircraft captain,
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accusing the pilot of over 900 flights without a valid license.
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saying like a movie script from catch me if you can with Leonardo DiCaprio um that's flew over
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17 years of the valid license as well as submitting forged credentials to his employer and regulatory
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bodies part of Project Icarus a probe into a complex fraud investigation related to the
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former 59 year old airline captain from Barrie Ontario who worked for Air Canada since 98 as a
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pilot became captain in 09 and alleged he had been misrepresenting credentials to his employer
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air Canada and regulatory officials through fraudulent documents and the press release
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released this morning by appeal regional police indicate he earned um nearly three million dollars
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in salary uh during that time it has shocked people it's made headlines around the world
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now air Canada issuing a statement saying that the investigation on a monetary penalty it said
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uh is related to this type of certification but they're saying safety was not compromised by this
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incident now that's what they're seeing but it does give pause to people who stress about flying
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to think that someone flew that many flights for that long and did not have the proper credentials
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i have to throw my bottle of water before i get on a plane absolutely i i that's what i think
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that's how is how is this less safe than that but mike that's what has everyone so confused that
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they're so strict about what like like a little nail file that's it it's got to be thrown out
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right i mean don't worry our pilots may or may not be licensed but you can't i mean this to me is
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absolutely abhorrent that there is and now please i want every pilot checked every single pilot
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don't you think that's going on by air canada right now coast to coast apparently not but but
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so i mean maybe if if they're in the scramble mode but what what i think is going to happen is that
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they're going to they're in cover their ass mode right now who else do we have that's not really
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licensed well i think that's the question number one i mean for all canadians who fly air canada
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on a regular basis every day yeah who else is this happened to so people ask me why did you drive
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across the country i'll tell you why i have a license that's right uh air canada saying that
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their pilots go through recurrent training every six months to validate their validate their flying
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competency like their regulations including an in-flight check with certified transport canada
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check pilot every 12 months so this pilot did is every six and 12 months and all the different
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things but the paperwork was fraudulent and i think a lot of people are wondering how could
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at air canada not catch that for so long okay so this guy's a pretty good pilot liar what about
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the next liar who's not a great pilot no no no i think that if you know what i honestly believe
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this airline needs to be closed air canada right now until every pilot is validated
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by the proper authorities they should not be able to operate another plane until every pilot is
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vetted so transport canada and the federal government do have that power they could tell
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that we're doing a ground stop of all air canada flights till every place every pilot's credentials
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and co-pilot's credentials are fully vetted and authorized and confirmed i demand it what as a
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canadian no i absolutely demand it mike i i think that's a question from the prime minister's office
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all the way down to the simplest person getting on a plane how could you not question right now
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does my pilot have actual credentials a proper license that isn't fraudulent to fly this plane
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i'm sorry if you booked a flight on air canada i demand they be shut down until every pilot is
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vetted well you know they shut down airlines for a lot of different reasons that the boeing the
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737 max there were two accidents fatal accidents every 737 max around the world was grounded right
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until the software was fixed look at spirit airlines they had to shut it down because there
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too many cigarette burns in the seats that was for you nick but i'm you know it's come to think
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about when you bring that up like they have the right to do that said wait a sec no more
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how could they do anything but that how why would air canada not of their own volition
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say okay we have to shut our doors we've made an an incredibly horrible mistake not just once
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900 times 17 years if you make 900 errors of this variety you should not be allowed to operate an
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airline in this country i am sorry 900 violations because i see pilots going through airports in
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canada all the time and they have a series of credentials on a lanyard yeah even the cabin crew
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and they check it i mean they check our information before like so he was able to
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check it they scanned it and it like first of all how did they he fake it to the point that he got
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on this is this story has got a lot of legs we've not heard the last of it but there will be a lot
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of questions will air canada now check the credentials of every single pilot and co-pilot
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in the airline in the coming weeks to basically to placate canadians to a layer of fears that
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actually we have a proper pilot flying the plane reach out to your politician reach out to uh the
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the prime minister's office demand that they shut down this airline until they check every pilot
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that's my advice yeah and if i mean i are they going to make a movie this is leonardo dicaprio
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not going to play have a have a canadian accent i the one thing i will say is this guy really did
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pull off a long-term scam like it's unbelievable you know i have to check my podcast credentials
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i don't think they're up to date wait a second that's your crime update uh tplmedia.ca we do
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this every week says here right on the shirt player it is and tplmedia.ca local look for
00:23:14.000
your hometown that's right do this locally now thanks jim i appreciate this looking for reliable
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