A West Vancouver man has been found not guilty of trying to smuggle opium into Canada, more than two years after the drug was discovered in his luggage at Vancouver International Airport.
Mohammadreza Haratisani, 24, was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on Sept. 5, 2010 after Canada Border Services officers became suspicious of declarations made by Haratisani and searched his luggage.
Haratisani had arrived at the airport from Tehran via Amsterdam.
Inside his luggage, officers found five kilograms of opium inside boxes of Iranian candy and packages of hookah pipe tobacco.
Haratisani was charged with importing a controlled substance and possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking, but pleaded not guilty to the charges.
He was acquitted last month following a trial in B.C. Supreme Court.
Neither Crown counsel Margaret Loda nor defence lawyer Mark Jette returned calls about the case.
Haratisani's arrest wasn't the first time North Shore residents have been arrested for alleged opium smuggling.
In January 2010, two North Vancouver men in their 50s were among four people initially arrested in connection with the largest-ever opium seizure in the province. The shipment of 56.8 kilograms of the drug arrived hidden inside a tombstone in an air cargo delivery from Iran. No charges were ever laid.
In a previous case, Reza Eshghabadi and his wife Ashraf Nabiloo, both North Vancouver residents, were handed two-year jail sentences for importing 1.5 kilograms of opium hidden in picture frames that arrived with a shipment of glassware from Dubai in November of 2003.
Another West Vancouver opium smuggler, Navid Pirouz, who smuggled more than three kilograms of the drug into Canada by mailing it to himself inside boxes of chocolate, was handed a conditional sentence in 2008.
