Clumsy Canadian couldn't open his suitcase so they broke into it and found 33 kilos of weed

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A man from Mississauga, Ont., told British customs agents at Aberdeen airport he didn’t have the padlock codes to open his two suitcases, but officers forced them open anyway. Inside they found nearly 33 kilos of cannabis.

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Clumsy Canadian couldn't open his suitcase so they broke into it and found 33 kilos of weed Back to video

Pawlo Albanskyj, 29, was flying from Toronto to Birmingham, England, via Amsterdam, on Dec. 11, 2022, when his flight was rerouted to Aberdeen airport in Scotland, authorities said.

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U.K. Border Force agents asked him about his suitcases when he stopped at customs before leaving the departure area, according to the National Crime Agency, a national police force in the United Kingdom.

Albanskyj said his luggage contained only clothes belonging to himself and his sister, who he was planning to visit in Slough, just outside London.

When asked to open them for inspection, he told officers he didn’t know the combination codes because they were his sister’s locks. He said he sent a text message to her for the codes but had not received a reply.

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Border agents cut the locks off and opened them.

Inside they found two T-shirts and vacuum-sealed plastic bags, each packed with 10 smaller packages, also wrapped in plastic.

When asked what was in the plastic bags, Albanskyj admitted they were stuffed with cannabis.

This time he was telling the truth. Laboratory tests confirmed 33 kilos of cannabis buds. British police estimated a street value of £295,000, which is equivalent to almost $500,000.

A police examination of his phone showed he was using an encrypted phone app to communicate with an unknown organizer about his travel and was being paid $8,000 to courier the cannabis on the trip.

Albanskyj pleaded guilty to being involved in the supply of cannabis in court on March 8, and, on April 5, he was sentenced to 32 months in His Majesty’s Prison.

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The judge offered some leniency as he has no previous criminal record in Canada or the United Kingdom.

“Pawlo Albanskyj brazenly carried a significant amount of drugs in his bags with no attempts to conceal what was inside,” said Peter Taylor, an NCA senior officer, adding it was “clearly prepared drugs” destined for England street sale.

“We will continue our work in our partnership with Police Scotland, and working closely with Border Force, to target and disrupt drug couriers and the gangs behind them,” Taylor said.

Police are looking into whether Albanskyj’s clumsy airport run is related to a wave of similar arrests a month later in England, involving mostly young Americans flying from Los Angeles to London with similar amounts of cannabis in their luggage.

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In January, a month after Albanskyj’s arrest, eleven U.S. citizens within eight days were stopped and arrested after loads of between 30 and 50 kilos of cannabis were found in their checked-in suitcases. More than 400 kilos were discovered in total.

Almost identical airport arrests of Americans continued into February.

Police said at the time that legally grown cannabis from California sells for a higher price in the U.K. than more commonly available product.

“These cases serve as further warnings to those who think they can get away with smuggling drugs into the U.K.,” Andy Noyes, commander of the NCA branch at London’s Heathrow airport, said at the time.

“No matter what you might get told by those organizing these trips, you will get caught, and as these individuals will tell you, you will face jail time.”

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