An article on drug trafficking, published in the Aviation Security International magazine

1. ALSO:
THE GASeP ROADMAP
CBRN WEAPON RESPONSE
DRUG TRAFFICKING
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
BUYERS GUIDE 2018
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2. T
he golden age of drug trafficking
by air began in the 1970s with drug
mules flying on a daily basis into
the US from Colombia and elsewhere
in Latin America. Whilst this was
glorified in the media (motion pictures,
television series, books, articles, etc.),
the harsh reality was that the avsec
world was woefully unprepared to deal
with the ever-increasing tide of illicit
drug smuggling.
It has been a long-held belief (and a
fairly accurate one) that drug smuggling
is being used to finance terrorism (this
is clearly stated in ICAO’s Aviation
Security Manual). After all, Pablo
Escobar’s reign of terror in Colombia
was financed by drugs, so we don’t
have to dig too deeply into history in
order to find a relevant source.
At the same time, ICAO was
never overly helpful with regards to
guidelines on screening for narcotics.
As per the Aviation Security Manual,
8973 in its various versions, ICAO
wants IFSOs (in-flight security officers
or ‘air marshals’) to be trained to
recognise drug traffickers, however it
is mute on what to do if such people
are indeed recognised. A section
on preventive security measures
simply calls for the prevention of
using company aircraft to transport
illicit drugs and, whilst there are
some good points, such as matching
baggage to passengers and ensuring
an aircraft is secure from tampering,
it is still very vague (and colour-
coded baggage tags, as suggested
in 8973/9 Appendix 25, section 6
(b) (viii), never really happened, as
it was and remains, amongst other
considerations, impractical to upgrade
all of the baggage tag printing
“…ICAO was never overly
helpful with regards to
guidelines regarding
screening for narcotics…”
DRUG
TRAFFICKING
BYAIR:
THELESSONSFOR
AVIATIONSECURITY
Aviation was, and often still is, the drug smuggler’s transportation mode of choice.
Eugene Gerstein offers a look at the world of drug trafficking and, based on the huge
successes of intervention by customs and other security agencies in stemming the flow
of such activity, he offers advice for aviation security professionals as to how they too
can use similar methods of detection to identify weapons and explosives which might be
used to target the industry.
December 2017/January 2018 Aviation Security International44

3. equipment to colour). Annex 9 makes
things a little clearer: ICAO wants the
individual states to facilitate narcotics
control with regards to civil aviation,
effectively saying that this should be
dealt with first and foremost by the
state, and not, as I see it, by frontline
avsec employees.
THE CULPRITS AND WHY THEY DO IT
Drug smuggling comes in many
shapes; from items smuggled airside
and subsequently onto aircraft by
authorised employees, and the
more mundane carrying of items by
passengers, be it in their checked
luggage destined for the hold, in their
carry-ons, on their person, and, quite
often, inside their bodies.
When it comes to drugs being
smuggled by baggage handlers, the
first image conjured up is that of
greedy, unscrupulous individuals who
are looking to profit and/or supplement
their incomes in any way possible.
Unfortunately, the harsh reality of
organised crime is often different.
Take Colombia as an example: The
Colombian baggage tag switching ploy
is a known tactic whereby baggage
tags are taken from legitimate checked
bags, attached onto bags containing
drugs (brought airside illegally), and
then picked up by criminals on arrival
in the destination country. If suspected
or simply spooked, they abandon the
bags, and if they are discovered by
the authorities, the original baggage
tag owner is in trouble. After a few
high profile cases involving arrests of
unsuspecting passengers, especially on
flights to Spain, steps were taken to
offer video evidence from the check-
in counters at the point of origin for
proper baggage reconciliation, and to
prove that the person whose name is on
the baggage tag actually checked in a
different bag.
The baggage handlers (and other
employees with airside access)
who do this often don’t do so for
financial rewards, but because they
are threatened by drug cartels, with
their families being held almost
as hostages. There are multiple
anecdotal and real world stories of
violence perpetrated against the
families of those with access to the
airside, just to keep these individuals
scared and cooperative.
Of course, there are many, many
stories of people with airside access
repeatedly committing crimes for
personal gain. Take, for example,
the famous case of the former
head of security at Ghana’s Kotoka
International Airport, who was
caught facilitating the smuggling of a
kilogram of heroin, which a US Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent
said he had hidden inside a laptop
(this is in addition to a plot, by the
same individual, to smuggle large
quantities of heroin into the United
States). Then there is the story of
the JetBlue flight attendant who was
ferrying drugs all across the United
States, the recent Trinidad scandals
(one of which involved a ground
handling staff member and someone
from the avsec team), and the recent
seizure of nearly 118kg of cocaine at
Pearson Airport in Toronto – the list
is very long and it never really ends.
Yet the most common type of
smuggler is, of course, the seemingly
regular passenger, presenting a
tremendous challenge to the avsec
industry. This is because many, if not
most screeners out there are not
properly trained to detect drugs and
often lack the technology that could
assist them. In addition, legislation
is often insufficient, and sometimes
non-existent.
METHODS OF DETECTION
Pat Down
The most utilised method for drug
detection is a manual pat down, and
yet it often fails to produce results.
Years ago, I witnessed the pat down of
a suspect in a major European airport.
Nothing was found even though we
knew he had drugs on him. The man
was arrested despite the screener’s
failure to find anything unusual, and in
a subsequent interview he intimated
that he had hidden the drugs in his
underwear and during the pat down
they had become dislodged and fallen
into the leg of his jeans. Since the jeans
were baggy, the screener failed to
properly check the suspect’s ankles; an
area found to be commonly overlooked
during pat downs due to screener
fatigue, the difficulty of bending down
and overall lack of training.
Of course, no amount of pat downs
will help to identify drugs that are
swallowed or hidden in various orifices,
however, I will return to this specific
issue later whilst discussing technology.
Process of cargo screening using natural
aspiration (credit: TeknoScan)
Get sample air from
side of container
Take out sample card
Put the sample card
in instrument
Get result
Get more detailed result
December 2017/January 2018 Aviation Security International 45EUR +44 (0)20 3892 3050 USA +1 920 214 0140 www.asi-mag.com

4. Behavioural Analysis
Before hopping on board the
technology train, it is very important
to mention profiling. It is no secret
to anyone who has ever travelled to
Latin America, as an example, that
certain countries are very aggressive in
their attempts to curb drug trafficking.
In Venezuela, many passengers are
subjected to separate screening by
counter-narcotics teams. In Colombia,
the Colombian National Police have
gone a step further, and employ
profiling techniques at major airports,
combined with the increasing use of
advanced technological equipment.
Whilst these steps are still in their
infancy, it is a part of a broader trend
worldwide, which demonstrates that
things can get better.
Transmission X-ray
It is often not easy to single out the
passenger who has swallowed drugs
or has drugs hidden in body cavities,
unless the person exhibits signs
of distress or unusual nervousness
(which can be for a variety of reasons).
Swallowed drugs present a special
challenge, as usually there is no clear
evidence, and no easy way to screen
the person for contraband. That is,
unless the airport has invested in
transmission X-ray technology, such
as the equipment manufactured by
Adani Systems or OD Security. The
individual being screened is
directed to stand on a small, moving
platform, which goes through an
archway. Within seconds, the operator
gets a clear picture of whether the
person has any unusual objects inside
their body, be it in the stomach or any
cavities. The use of such systems allows
for rapid discovery of contraband, and
in some ways, improves passenger
facilitation – after all, if the scan is
clear then the passenger can continue
their journey without any invasive
procedures. There are potential
privacy issues associated with the use
of such technology. However, this is a
complex subject that can be endlessly
debated – after all, security and privacy
go hand in hand, even if they are often
considered to be mutually exclusive.
Canine Detection
Hold baggage (and carry-on
baggage for that matter) presents
a unique challenge, as even with
advanced screening equipment,
it is often not easy to discover
drugs. Traditionally, sniffer
dogs were – and still are –
deployed to look for drugs
(this is in addition
to explosive
d e t e c t i o n
dogs, as
ICAO very
c l e a r l y
states that
the same
dog cannot
be used for
both purposes).
H o w e v e r
valuable an
asset a dog is,
studies have demonstrated that a
dog that alerts hundreds of times
will be wrong dozens of times,
so the percentage of failures can
be significant. Additionally, most
problems with sniffer dogs occur not
because of the dog, but because the
handler is tired and fails to properly
engage the dog.
Chemical Trace
Detection Systems
Chemical trace detection (CTD),
however, has a clear advantage over
canine detection in that it is capable of
identifying many more substances than
a dog can, and the fatigue of a device’s
operator has a lot less impact on results
than the fatigue of a dog handler.
Many, if not most, people think of
CTD systems in terms of explosive
detection, and an important and often
underutilised function of many of
these devices is narcotics detection.
Whilst most of the well-known trace
detection manufacturers utilise similar
methods, such as swabbing, and
basic ‘sniffing’, an exciting company
in Canada - TeknoScan Systems Inc.
- is revolutionising hold baggage
and cargo screening using a method
called ‘natural aspiration’, which
utilises high-volume sampling (think
of a big vacuum cleaner, collecting
vast quantities of particles from the
air) to provide simultaneous vapour
and particle sampling. In addition
to capturing vapour samples from
threat substances, this method also
allows the capture of microscopic
airborne particles floating in the air
inside a checked bag (or a box)
and finally a ULD-3, increasing the
“…in Venezuela, many
passengers are subjected
to separate screening by
counter-narcotics teams…”
Canines are routinely used at airports for the detection of drugs
46

5. probability of detection. If a ULD-3
test comes back positive, each bag
inside can be rapidly sampled until
the correct one is identified. The
same system can be used for rapidly
screening an aircraft’s cargo hold
when connected to a plane’s rear
ventilation dump valve, allowing for
rapid screening of the hold without
any impact on aircraft turnaround
times and regular operations.
CTD systems complement imaging
systems, allowing the detection of
narcotics (and other contraband) in
non-threat items – in other words,
drugs hidden inside various goods
and objects.
Whilst there are some tall-order
success stories, such as finding three
grams of heroin stored inside a plastic
bag hidden inside a 40ft sea-going
container, realistic expectations for
detection (based on packaging – after
all, technology is not a magic wand)
are around 250g of cocaine in a regular
sized piece of luggage, 100g of cocaine
in a box (regardless of whether it is a
cardboard box or a plastic container),
and around 1kg of cocaine inside a
ULD-3 container. The same devices
are often capable of simultaneously
discovering explosives and various
other substances (in many cases,
narcotics detection was introduced
as an add-on feature to supplement
explosives detection).
CONCLUSION
All of the issues, methods, stories and
evidence described above impart a
number of important lessons: we, the
avsec community, need proper training
(and perhaps proper legislation to
mandate such training), to embrace
various profiling techniques, and
better access to advanced technology.
Whilst we need to be vigilant, we
also need the right tools to help
us along the way. Better education
of the population also goes a long
way in reducing drug trafficking, and
lengthy prison sentences and even
(often protested) executions serve
as powerful deterrents. At the same
time, there are always those who
will risk everything, and those who
are being unwittingly used, so drug
smuggling continues to be a never-
ending cycle.
As the old adage goes, ‘where there
is a will, there is a way’, which is why
everything comes down to proper
planning, processes and procedures,
and the individual screeners – the
often under-appreciated frontline
defenders in the fight against global
drug trafficking.
Eugene Gerstein
is the business
d e v e l o p m e n t
director for
W e s t m i n s t e r
Aviation Security
Services Ltd.
With over 20
years of experience in 42 countries
across the globe, he has worked
on large international infrastructure
projects, primarily in the airport
and defence industries, as well as
having spent years in avsec and
ground operations. Prior to his
commercial activities, Eugene was
a military officer and served in law
enforcement, involved in counter-
narcotics and counter-terrorism
task forces. He can be contacted at
e.gerstein@wass-ltd.com.
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