The port of Montreal is clearly the smugglers’ favorite: 1,050 stolen vehicles were seized there by border authorities last year, compared to 57 at all other ports in the country. Not to mention the thousands of other cars that were able to leave its platforms without any problem.
Although the port authority has to contend with a reputation as a sieve, it still has very little control over what passes through its facilities, claims Daniel Dagenais, vice president in charge of port security at the time of the interview.
“The control of export goods is essentially linked to customs. With him we can solve this problem.”
– Daniel Dagenais, Port of Montreal
Photo Photo JOEL LEMAY, QMI Agency
Our investigative bureau was still entitled to a presentation of the arsenal of security measures put in place to control comings and goings at the Port of Montreal.
600 cameras for better surveillance
At the port control center – located in a former Expo 67 building at the foot of the Victoria Bridge – two employees keep an eye on a series of screens.
Photo agency QMI, JOEL LEMAY
Images from 600 surveillance cameras distributed along the port’s 26-kilometer shoreline are alternately displayed, in addition to measurements from other passive monitoring instruments.
These videotapes contain valuable information in the event of a police investigation.
“We can confirm with absolute certainty who brought the container, we saw it. We know exactly who we need to talk to to move up the chain,” says Daniel Dagenais, who worked at the port for 35 years.
Please pass
Almost 2,000 heavy goods vehicles pass through this gate every day. Here every driver must present their port pass, and some also have to present a security clearance from Transport Canada.
Photo agency QMI, JOEL LEMAY
To obtain approval, you must provide not only your passport, your original birth certificate, but also that of your spouse and fingerprints.
Remember that containers are sealed upon arrival at the port and only the Border Services Agency has the right to open them unless it receives a court order.
A car in a stack of containers
In the Port of Montreal, hundreds of containers are stacked on the docks as far as the eye can see. Good luck finding the location of a reported stolen car, even with a tracking device.
“We have testimonies from people standing on the edge of the fence who see thousands of containers and say to themselves: “My pickup is here!”
“But often people have geolocation that is precise for them but far from precise for us,” explains Mr. Dagenais, vice president of port performance, patiently.
Photo agency QMI, JOEL LEMAY
Even with a relatively precise location, the vehicle can be found just as easily in the container at the bottom of the stack as in the fourth container or the one next to it.
Complex and delicate
Just isolating a suspicious container in the Port of Montreal is a real problem due to the lack of space and the movement of goods, like here in a terminal.
Photo agency QMI, JOEL LEMAY
You must first locate the correct container, manage the floor space to make room, pull it out of the stack with a crane, and then transport it to a private partner so it can be examined.
“The aim would be to avoid having to manage this on the port premises, as it is very difficult from a logistical point of view and involves costs that everyone bears,” emphasizes Daniel Dagenais, head of the security department.
Ultimately, the Customs and Immigration Union estimates that about 1% of the 800,000 containers that leave the Port of Montreal each year are inspected.
Train tracks
Criminals active in Ontario are increasingly using trains to transport stolen cars to the Port of Montreal.
Photo agency QMI, JOEL LEMAY
You should know that the port has 100 km of railway tracks connected to the CP and CN networks, which makes it possible to load a container in Toronto and transport it directly to Montreal.
Although this option costs thieves more than the cost of road transport, it has the advantage of reducing the risk of being intercepted along the way.
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