CBSA Greater Toronto Area Region operational and enforcement highlights from 2020  

Protecting and Supporting Canadians during COVID-19

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Greater Toronto Area Region today released operational and enforcement highlights that demonstrate how CBSA employees throughout the region have worked to safeguard our communities while supporting the economy during these unprecedented times.

The 2020 operational and enforcement highlights cover January 1 to October 31, 2020.

Facilitating the release of Personal Protective Equipment

GTA officers ensured the expedited release of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) shipments arriving daily while remaining vigilant for any fraudulent or substandard products that could be harmful for Canadians. The processing and release of this PPE was a collaborative effort between the CBSA and many partners and stakeholders and resulted in over 80,000 shipments entering Canada from January to November 2020 for essential workers, the health care community and the general public.

New on-site lab tests for highly toxic substances

Millions of parcels pass through our postal stream every year. The Designated Safe Sampling Area (DSSA) at Toronto’s International Mail Processing Centre is aimed at keeping illegal drugs off our streets. DSSAs allow for suspected highly toxic substances to be sampled and analyzed by a CBSA on-site chemist. The DSSA has the capability of providing real-time identification of designer drugs such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, as well as precursors and legitimate chemicals, using a database of over 100,000 chemicals. This gives the CBSA enhanced drug detection capabilities at the front line.

Ensuring critical services to the importer community continue during the pandemic

Our Trade Program continued to deliver critical services and contribute to economic stability throughout the pandemic, processing $229 million in refund claims to the Canadian importer community from April to October 2020. As of October 31, 2020, the Trade Program had also assessed duties and taxes as a result of verification activities totaling $98,928,400.

Maintaining the integrity of our immigration system – Project Phantom leads to immigration charges

Project Phantom is an investigation led by the Greater Toronto Area Region into large scale immigration consultant fraud leading to foreign nationals obtaining status as permanent residents. The main target operated an immigration consulting business resulting in hundreds of foreign nationals being issued various status documents from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. In July 2020, charges were laid against the main target and some of his subordinate employees under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.  

Keeping our communities safe

14,351 seizures worth over $115 million:

Criminal organizations are not above exploiting a crisis to smuggle guns, drugs, and other contraband into the country. GTA officers made 14,351 seizures of illegal narcotics, including cocaine and heroin, weapons, including firearms and replica firearms, food/plant/animal and counterfeit items across our airport, cargo, and mail processing operations. The total seizures are valued at over $115 million.

Drugs:

Between January 1 and October 31, 2020, there were 5,983 narcotic seizures valued over $109,868,831 million. Some of these included 73 suspected cocaine seizures valued over $26,658,825 million, 50 suspected heroin seizures valued over $34,351,600 million, 33 suspected methamphetamine seizures valued over $15,892,694 million, 119 suspected opium seizures valued over $4,961,378 million, 3,458 suspected cannabis seizures valued over $18,695,979 million, and 1,312 suspected khat seizures valued over $4,953,165 million.

Firearms and weapons:

Firearms and weapons are high-risk commodities and their interdiction is an enforcement priority. We have taken an innovative approach to combatting the smuggling of illicit firearms, including the establishment of a Regional Firearms Interdiction Team in the Greater Toronto Area to ensure the legitimacy of personal and commercially imported firearms. Since its creation in early 2020, this team has intercepted 1,600 replica firearms. Additionally, officers seized 9,972 illegal weapons and 83 firearms.