Officers from the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) yesterday made their second cocaine bust in five days, nabbing an Italian woman who was attempting to leave the country with some ten pounds of the drug concealed among the clothing in her suitcase.
Sources told Stabroek News last evening that the woman was booked to travel to New York via Martinique. She checked in at the airport some time early yesterday afternoon and when her suitcase was searched several parcels containing cocaine were found wrapped up in pieces of her clothing.
She was arrested and investigations into the discovery are continuing.
This bust follows one on Sunday, in which 3.5 kg of cocaine was discovered. The Caribbean Airlines clerk, who allegedly checked in a cocaine-filled suitcase in the name of an outgoing passenger, will be charged shortly and placed before the court.
According to reports, the passenger, a Guyanese resident in the US was here on official business and was about to board the flight when he was stopped by CANU ranks who informed him about the discovery.
This was about half an hour after he had checked in. However, investigations revealed that the man had only checked in one piece of luggage, which was not the bag with the cocaine. The CANU officers then investigated further and on Monday, the check-in clerk was taken into custody.
For the year a number of outgoing passengers have been nabbed at the airport with cocaine.
In January, Artlaine Mentor, a 35-year-old businessman of 229 Long Creek, Linden/Soesdyke Highway and Shellon Benjamin, a 26-year-old hairdresser of Critchlow Street, Tucville were caught with cocaine stuffed in the soles of several pairs of footwear in their suitcases.
The two Jamaica-bound passengers both admitted to the trafficking in narcotics charge without hesitation when they appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court before Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan who sentenced them both to three years in prison together with a $10,000 fine.
Jamaican Herman Johnson was nabbed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri in June with 1222 kg of cocaine in his suitcase.
He later appeared in court and was sentenced to four years imprisonment together with a fine of $10,000 after he admitted committing the offence.
The cocaine was found concealed in bottles of deodorant, condoms, hair spray and in the handle of the suitcase.
In June, CANU ranks at the airport intercepted a suitcase bound for Canada with 6,583 grammes of cocaine inside. Officials had said that from all appearances, persons unknown were attempting to smuggle the drug out of the country by labelling the suitcase with the name of a passenger who was scheduled to leave for Canada. That passenger was not arrested.
A CANU officer had told the media that on that day a woman in a wheelchair scheduled to leave on a Zoom Airlines flight bound for Canada checked in one black suitcase. The officer said an airline official later noticed a brown suitcase next to the woman’s and on checking discovered that the woman’s name was written on it but in a different handwriting. Officials at the airport were alerted and on checking found six huge parcels of cocaine underneath two bath towels.
No one was ever charged in relation to that incident.
