A Great Whale man is probably reconsidering the wisdom of a life of crime.
The man, whom Kativik Regional Police didn’t identify, caused a disturbance Sept. 1 while going through metal-detection security at the Whapmagoostui/Kuujjuarapik airport.
The detector sounded, but the man refused to allow a body search. But he still insisted on boarding his plane.
Police were called, and it turned out that the suspect had $45,000 in cash on a belt strapped to his stomach and back.
Metal filaments in that quantity of banknotes apparently caused the metal detectors to sound an alarm.
Unfortunately for the man, there were also notes attached to the large sum of money giving explicit instructions on how to obtain different types and quantities of illegal drugs.
“The suspect was getting on a plane bound for Montreal when the metal detector went off, so they asked him to lift his shirt, he refused and we were summoned,” according to Larry Hubert, Chief of Police for the Kativik Regional Police Force (KRPF).
When the police got there, the suspect was still uncooperative and antsy. They proceeded to bring him down to the station to perform a search. That was when the money was found.
Charges have not been formally laid and the suspect was subsequently released the next day.
If the money seized goes unclaimed, it will be sent to Quebec City to the minister of public security, and will be divided amongst the police forces for drug prevention.
Hubert says that the KRPF is in the midst of upgrading their training to deal with these types of incidents by creating a drug task force. He predicts that by October they will have a program in place that will deal more affectively with the rise in drug trafficking and abuse.
