COPS CATCH A STRANGE MAN AT TORONTO AIRPORT AND ARE SURPRISED EVEN MORE BY THE CONTENTS OF HIS BAG

 

A trip to the airport is not usually a pleasant one and with all the waiting in queues and on the checkpoints, it becomes more frustrating. But if we were to let you in on a secret, then the wait and the queues are a thousand times better than the guard dogs pouncing on you.

The story that follows offers you all kinds of surprises and joy. The story starts when a Canadian man lands on an airport with a bag and how the events unfold after that. But what was so unusual about this mystery man of ours that will leave everyone surprised.

The 21st Century

The world is nowadays at our fingertips and with all the technology that the 21st century has to offer, it becomes nearly impossible for anything to remain hidden. And with the advanced tracking systems, it is quite easy to find things that aren’t even visible to our eyes.

Airports

The airport is one such place that shows how much technology has advanced. Nothing remains hidden to the authorities at the airport. It is nearly impossible to take something to the airport which is not allowed and not get caught.

Trying Their Luck

And even when every person knows this thing some people try their luck and try to bring things that are not permitted. More often than not these people end up with the officials with their hands at back tied with the cuffs.

Technologies

But even with all the equipment and the detectors installed at the airport, there have been times when people were able to illegally sneak things under the nose of the authorities. And this is a story of both the cases combined.

Pearson International Airport

An incident took place at Pearson International Airport in Toronto which left even the officials in shock. Ippolit Bodounov was one of the persons who deboarded at the same airport and was looking like any usual passenger.

 Foolhardiness?

Even after knowing the fact that all the odds are stacked against him, he was still going to try something almost impossible to pull off. You could call him foolhardy but even he might have known that it was a dumb thing to do.

Landing

As soon as Ippolit’s flight landed at the Pearson International Airport in Toronto, he got down and started walking away. The Ontario native tried to act like a normal passenger who might be jet-lagged and glad that his half-day journey was over.

Toronto

Ippolit boarded the flight from Russia and got down in Toronto but when he got down in Toronto, something seemed a bit odd about him. Even though he was trying to act normal, he could not remain calm knowing about the stowaways in his carry-on luggage.

Uneasiness

The time when Ippolit stepped off the airplane in Toronto but he could feel that there was something that he could not hide even if he wanted to. His heart started pounding heavily and he knew that it was too big a risk that he was about to take.

Not The First Time

It was a big deal but he had already smuggled the bag once at the Russian Airport but this time the things did not seem going his way. Fate had entirely different plans for Ippolit than it had the first time and this time it was not going to turn out in favor of Ippolit.

Suspicion

Ippolit tried to act coolly and not make anyone suspicious about his luggage and the contents of his baggage. Everything was going fine till one point but an official who was in charge of security felt something odd about Ippolit.

Greatest Foes

The greatest foe of Ippolit was about to come in the picture. Ippolit always had disliked dogs and it turns out that they were going to be the ones to be the hero in this whole situation. His biggest nightmare was about to come true.

Dogs

Although the majority of people find dogs to be cute, some people are scared of them too. He started to act confident as he thought that it would fend all the suspicion off him. He was carrying out this plan of his and everything was going great but there was one thing he did not consider- the border patrol canines.

Border Patrol Canines

Many of the people do not like a trip to the airport with all the waiting and hustle-bustle that surrounds the place. The view of border patrol canines is not a pleasant one and their capability of smelling things from a distance is one thing many smugglers fear.

Smelling Sense

The canines that are used at the Border Patrol canines have a great smelling sense and that was exactly the thing that Ippolit was dreading. However, he had done it once at the time of boarding the flight, how hard would it be to do it again?

Bark!

He reached for the papers relating to his journey and shuffled up to the customs agent. But as soon as he reached for his bag to take out the papers, he heard a bark. He thought that the dogs might be barking at somebody else but could he have been more wrong.

Misconceptions

He was living in the misconception that no one would be able to find about the contents of the bag. He thought that the canines would never be able to find about his bags but they had never failed in catching the scent of what he was carrying.

Panicking

The dogs started barking furiously and at this time he started panicking. Ippolit knew that he was in trouble the moment he saw those dogs barking like that. It did not matter however cool he acted, he knew that he was busted.

Turn!

When the barks started increasing with every passing moment, he hoped that they would have caught wind of something else. He casually turned back to see what was happening and he saw that all the dogs were on him.

What’s In That Bag?

It was the bag that Ippolit was carrying that the dogs were interested in. They started pouncing on the bags that he was carrying. The security personnel had to keep the dogs in control but they were clear about the fact that the bag had something that no one other than the dogs could sense.

Cautious

The agents took the dogs aside and tied them while other agents snatched the bag from him at once. The agents had to be very cautious while opening the bag. One of the agents took the charge and when he opened it, he was left in shock.

Another Bag

The agent opened the bag and to his surprise, the bag had another bag inside it. This confused every security agent who was present there. But this was only the beginning of the many surprises that were to follow.

Other Bags

When he opened the other bag he was left in shock once again. This time he could not believe his eyes. The bag had ten other small bags that looked very suspicious. When the agent touched the bag he realized that the bags were too damp to be touched.

Sniff

The agents wanted to be sure before opening the package that it did not have something that would cause a problem. One of the agents took one of the bags and sniffed to ensure that it didn’t have anything dangerous.

Too Much Perfume

A sniff and the amount of perfume he breathed was enough to make him reach the conclusion that whoever packed it made sure that they were packed in a way that no one should find about them or what was inside of them.

Arrested

At once the security agents arrested Ippolit. Now the question was that what was inside those bags. The security agents thought that it was a regular case of smuggling and the bags might contain some regular contraband like drugs or jewelry. But all their expectations were about to meet a shocking realization.

Leeches

The security agents upon opening those small bags started to regret as to why did they stop Ippolit in the first place. The agents found that the bags were filled with LEECHES. And there were thousands of them.

Illegally Imported?

According to the security agents, there were more than a thousand leeches and all of them alive and squirming. The mode of transport had been suspicious and their packaging made it more suspicious than it already was. But the agents weren’t quite sure that the leeches were illegally imported.

What Next?

Now the security agents had to find out more about the leeches but they did not have any expertise in that matter. Therefore the agents decided that they would have to contact an expert and ask them for answers as they did not have any clue.

Contacting Experts

They contacted the experts at the Royal Ontario Museum and the American Museum of Natural History. Now using all the technology that was available to the experts, the zoologists had to analyze the breed of the leeches and whether they were bred or caught.

Sebastian Kvist

As soon as the sample reached the experts, Sebastian Kvist a curator of invertebrate zoology at the Royal Ontario Museum identified the creatures as Hirudo verbana. He further told the authorities that it is used for medical purposes.

Medical Purposes

The experts added that while many types of leeches are used for medical purposes, but the thing that made this breed of leech so different from the others was the fact that it was an endangered species.

A Very Old Practice

It is not the first time that this species of leech was being used for medical purposes, it is being used for centuries for curing various serious diseases. The earliest proofs of leeches being used in medical purposes can be found in the notes of Indian physicians Charaka and Sushruta from the 8th century.

2nd Century

It was in the 2nd century that the medical leches made their way to the Western world and it was a Greco-Roman physician Galen that made them so popular. The practice of bleeding the patients was favored by him and was very well received by everyone and because this practice was becoming so common, the physicians were often called by the name ‘leeches’.

Preventing Infections

And very soon for preventing infections and treating illnesses around the world, bloodletting became a standard procedure and it was places like Eastern Europe and the Americas where this practice became a prominent technique.

Stats

If we are to believe the stories that surrounded these facts than in the 19th century, almost 6 million leeches were used and a total of 300,000 liters of blood was drawn from the patients and this stat is only for Paris.

Development Of Technologies

With the development of technologies, the practice of using leeches for medical purposes has fallen out of favor. But there are still many people who are ready to pay for these slippery creatures. The value of Hirudo verbena on the open market ranges from $6-$14 apiece.

Almost 5000 Leeches

And by the time these all facts came into light, the counting of the leeches that were procured from Ippolit had reached more than 5,000. The smuggler’s antics pointed out to the fact that he was an amateur in these kinds of things. 

A Great Deal

Ippolit might have been thinking that this day would yield him a great profit but he couldn’t have been any more wrong. But Canada’s zero-tolerance policy on the sale of exploited animals was one thing that Ippolit did not consider while smuggling the leeches and as a result, he was fined $15000 and was banned for importing or exporting any endangered species of Wild Flora and Fauna.

Effect On Ecosystem

The leeches that are found to be of the illegal origin are usually disposed of in a nearby water body and this disrupts the natural balance of the ecosystem. And this is not the first time, there are various varieties of European leeches that are already being found in Canadian lakes as a result of this dumping practice.