Pearson Airport workers may leave without routine searches, W5 reports

W5 reported that employees with direct access to restricted areas at pearson airport are not routinely searched when they leave Toronto Pearson International Airport. Charles, a Pearson ramp worker, said he has worked airside for 20 years and has been searched only once while leaving the airport.

He said, "When I finish work, I walk right out through the terminal doors, right out to go get the train to go to a parking lot. Nobody checks you," and added, "If somebody gets a hold of something, they’re gone with it," and, "We joke that you could walk out carrying a cruise missile and they wouldn’t even stop you."

Charles at Pearson

Passengers at Toronto Pearson International Airport face carry-on X-rays, confiscation of water bottles, scanning, searches and camera monitoring throughout the terminals. Employees who can reach luggage and aircraft areas are treated differently: searches happen only if a specific incident is believed to have occurred.

That gap is central to the investigation because more than 50,000 people work at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and the reporting says organized crime groups can exploit insider access to move drugs through the airport’s baggage and aircraft systems.

Dieter Boeheim on access

Retired York Regional Police Insp. Dieter Boeheim said airports are built to scrutinize passengers, but not necessarily employees. He said, "The front of the airport, where you and I go as passengers, is super secure," and, "The back door of the airport that’s accessible to the employees is like an open barn door where you can come and go at will."

He also said the airplane becomes a vessel to move cocaine, and that the smuggling requires coordination in Toronto and in source countries. According to Boeheim, drugs are loaded into baggage systems abroad and then removed in Toronto with help from workers on the inside.

W5 investigation

W5 said its research identified organized crime groups including the Hells Angels, Mexican cartels, Asian organized crime networks and Italian mafia groups as having corrupt employees working for them inside the airport. Boeheim said, "You have your counterparts in Toronto unload and get it to the outside."

The reporting is part two of a four-part investigative series, and it leaves Pearson’s employee exit screening as the key gap described in the story: passengers face repeated checks, while workers with access to restricted areas can leave without routine searches.