An Edmonton man is facing two charges after $101,500 worth of fake Edmonton Transit Service passes were smuggled into the country, the Canada Border Services Agency announced on Wednesday.
On June 26, CBSA officers at the Edmonton International Airport Commercial Operations were examining a package from China that was headed to an Edmonton address. The package was labelled “book and business cards,” but when officers opened it, they found a book with 16 plastic playing card sleeves with ETS passes for the month of July.
In total, there were 1,047 fake passes in the package. Since fraud was suspected, the seizure was referred to the CBSA Criminal Investigations Division in Edmonton for further investigation.
Those criminal investigators also found authentic passes in the package that they say were used as reference samples for the fake passes.
The investigation was handed over to the Edmonton Police Service. Officers then delivered the package to the recipient, CBSA said.
Police arrested 31-year-old Yuexuan Wu, of Edmonton.
“This was an example of excellent cooperation between Edmonton police and the CBSA that allowed us to stop fraudulent activity right at its entry point into the country,” EPS Const. Jess Bagan said in a news release.
Wu is facing one count of possession of forged documents and one count of property obtained by crime under the Criminal Code. He was also charged by the CBSA under the Customs Act with smuggling and possession of imported prohibited goods.
Comments