Agent tells of client's drug mule ordeal
An out of the ordinary day for a travel agent might involve landing a commission laden booking or departing on a sought after famil trip, but it’s unlikely to involve working side by side with the Australian Federal Police (AFP). But for the team at Harvey World Travel South Perth, the last two months have been anything but ordinary.
The bizarre chain of events that entangled the agency began on October 13 when an elderly Perth couple returned home from an all expenses paid holiday to Canada.
The pair had embarked on the trip after winning a prize in an online competition with a company called AUSCAN Tours. And they had certainly enjoyed a memorable week away, with plenty of sightseeing and all their accommodation taken care of as part of the deal.
But after a time they developed nagging doubts about the legitimacy of the trip. Particularly troubling was the luggage they had received as part of the prize. With unease mounting, and noting that the bags felt heavier than when they left Canada, they alerted Customs officers upon arriving at Perth airport.
A search of the bags revealed the startling truth. Hidden in the lining of each suitcase was 3.5kg of methamphetamine in rock form. The 7kg of drugs had an eye-watering street value of $7 million. Anyone convicted of transporting this quantity of illicit drugs faces the daunting prospect of up to 25 years behind bars.
The scheme unravelled promptly thereafter. A 38-year old Canadian man waiting for the couple in the arrivals lounge at Perth airport was arrested shortly afterward and a subsequent search of a Scarborough hotel room turned up $15,000 in cash, suitcases similar to those given to the couple and incriminating documents related to the scam. Unsurprisingly, the Canadian-based website promoting AUSCAN Tours was hastily taken offline shortly after the Perth contact was busted.
On the very same day, across town, the wheels were in motion at Harvey World Travel South Perth to send another pair of AUSCAN Tours winners on a trip to Canada.
Agency proprietor David van der Meer takes up the story. “About a week before the first couple handed themselves in to customs my part time consultant received a call from a guy in Canada who wanted to bring his parents up to Vancouver. He faxed her a copy of their passports and it all seemed perfectly legitimate. He also corresponded with her by email and his surname was the same as the passport names for the two elderly people he was sending up there.”
After a period of emails being exchanged and details finalised, the tickets were booked for the two travellers, with payment pending. But the payment method was somewhat unusual. “My consultant said a man did come in and he looked very dodgy – like a bikie – and paid $11,000 in cash. She said this seemed peculiar but because the organiser was in Canada. But the passport photos of the two elderly passengers and the paperwork were all above board, so she just assumed all was fine.”
After the initial pair at the airport rumbled the scheme, the Canada contact was quick to email and cancel the tickets for the second pair of unwitting mules. “My consultant charged a high cancellation fee as she spent so much time on it. She managed to void the tickets on the same day so the money never went through IATA’s Billing and Settlement Plan, leaving $11,000 on file for our agency.”
The AFP visited the agency during the next week and the full extent of the scam was explained to van der Meer and his team. They were then conscripted in the quest to catch the perpetrators; a CCTV camera was installed in the office to keep a look out for anyone who might come in and try to claim the outstanding $11,000.
“We wrote back to the Canadian guy acting like we knew nothing of the scam and asked how we could get the refund back to him. But they were savvy enough to cut their losses and close the email,” van der Meer said.
In the weeks following, and with the forces of justice now hot on the trail of the scammers, van der Meer’s consultant who received the money for the flights was taken to AFP headquarters. Once there, she was asked to provide an identikit description of the man who paid for the flights.
The scammers had clearly done their homework on how the mules would be booked. “They were using well known brands like Harvey World Travel to make it seem more legitimate for the mules they were setting up, the AFP advised me. Three different travel agents in Perth were used, in fact. If the original couple did not hand themselves in, then my poor clients would have been next.”
And what is van der Meer’s advice for travel agents who find themselves in a similar situation? “My gut instinct says, basically if anyone pays a lot of cash and something doesn’t seem right, then it should be reported. But it’s a slippery slope; you don’t want to jeopardise a large booking simply because someone looks a bit dodgy or needs to pay in cash. Sometimes there is no right answer.”
The industry’s peak body broadly concurs with van der Meer’s instinct. “Travel agents should make their own decisions about any customer and if they feel that there is a potential fraud or suspicious activity they should report the situation to the police,” Australian Federation of Travel Agents chief executive Jayson Westbury said.
With the case now more or less closed, it appeared there was only one issue still outstanding – that of the remaining $11,000 that the scammers left on the books at the South Perth agency.
“All taken by the AFP sadly. We didn’t even get to keep the $1000 commission on the booking.” Crime clearly doesn’t pay, even for the good guys.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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