A Canadian businessman faces up to 15 years in prison after being caught up in an alleged bag swap while travelling to Albania. Kristian and Adriana Gjoni were travelling to the southern European country from Toronto to tell their family they were expecting their first child. But, following the Air Transat direct flight to Tirana, the Albanian capital, the couple found themselves in solitary confinement and Adriana tragically miscarried due to stress.
Customs Discovery and Detention
The horror came after an Albanian customs officer asked the couple why one of their four bags was missing a tag. The businessman told Canadian news outlet CTV News: "I told him, I'm not an employee of Pearson [Airport in Toronto] or Air Transat. How would I know?" After two-and-a-half hours in detention, Kristian was taken to a baggage carousel and ordered to pick up one remaining bag on the belt. Despite telling the officer the bag wasn't his, the official opened the bag, which revealed 23.15kg of cannabis.
The IT businessman was then photographed next to the drug-filled suitcase. He said: "Think of the red carpet in Hollywood, where you have hundreds of people taking pictures all around and a single suitcase being opened."
Growing Trend in Canada
The ordeal took place in the summer amid a growing trend in Canada where unsuspecting passengers have their suitcases swapped by corrupt airport workers who want to smuggle drugs into an airport. The workers take the tags off the passengers' luggage and instead attach it to a suitcase full of drugs. A mule then picks it up at the destination if the bag makes it through or, if not, the innocent passenger is left to deal with the consequences. This prompted the Canadian government to issue a warning about the trend, advising passengers to take pictures of their suitcases.
The warning reads: "Criminal networks exploit luggage tags at the airport to move drugs. Your authentic baggage tag can be removed and placed onto a completely different bag containing drugs, or your suitcase might be switched before you collect it from the carousel. This tactic leaves you completely unaware of the swap until you reach the customs exit."
It adds: "Take photos of your packed luggage before you close it. Always check that the tag number on your collected suitcase matches your physical baggage receipt exactly before heading toward the customs exit. In a tag-switching scheme, your authentic tag may be placed onto a completely different bag, so it is important to double-check that the suitcase with your tag number is actually your own bag."
Pictures Backfire and Miscarriage
But taking pictures of their luggage actually worked against the couple instead of in their favour, as this raised Albanian authorities' suspicions about them. Kristian said: "They asked me, 'Why did you take pictures of your bags?' And I told them, because it’s been all over the news and it’s a security risk right now in Canada." Kristian then spent four days in solitary confinement at a local prison, having to live in an eight-by-nine-foot cell that had no windows and was illuminated by a fluorescent lamp that was constantly on.
Adriana was taken to hospital after she reported severe cramping but doctors told police she was not pregnant. Albanian press then accused Kristian, who is originally from Albania, of making up his wife's pregnancy to escape being inspected at the airport. Adriana was taken back into custody and released 12 hours later, by which time she was feeling unwell again. Following another hospital trip, it was revealed she had indeed been pregnant but had miscarried, with Kristian convinced it was the stress caused by Albanian authorities that led to the pregnancy to terminate. He said: "We still haven't moved past it. I don't think we're ever going to fully move past it."
Legal Battle and Bail
Another Canadian passenger on the same flight as Kristian and Adriana was also questioned after her tag was found on another suitcase which contained 23kg of cannabis. She was released without charge, however. Kristian was eventually released from prison on bail after his lawyer presented evidence on bags being swapped at Pearson Airport. He is now back in Toronto but must go back to Tirana every four months for a five-minute check in with authorities there. This has been relaxed as the previous conditions required him to sign in every month.
Kristian, whose intersections with the law previously only consisted in parking fines, has now hired prominent Albanian anti-corruption lawyer Ndue Pjetra. The lawyer has submitted evidence to the Albanian courts about "serious concerns regarding security at Canadian airports". The Canadian government said in a statement that it is satisfied Kristian and Adriana only checked in the four bags they picked up and agreed with the couple's version of events. The statement added that the government believes Kristian and Adriana were victims of a bag-tag switch incident.
Kristian's trial is now expected to begin early next year, with the young businessman facing up to 15 years in prison. A spokesperson for Air Transat said the airline takes allegations of interference with the baggage system "very seriously". Mirror Online has approached Toronto Pearson International Airport for comment.
