– three Jamaicans held
Three Jamaicans were yesterday morning intercepted at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport after a search of luggage belonging to one of them unearthed a quantity of cocaine with an estimated US street value of US$20,000 concealed neatly in a dartboard.
Two of them are in the custody of the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) while the other was taken to a city hospital under police guard after officials suspected that he had swallowed some of the substance.
A CANU officer explained that around 6.30 am the three Jamaicans — one female and two males, who are in their late 20s — were outgoing passengers on a Caribbean Airlines flight CA424 destined for Jamaica via Barbados. He said officers at the airport profiled the female Jamaican and her suitcase was checked in her presence and then dart board was discovered.
A preliminary check on the board discovered the substance which appeared to be cocaine.
Following interrogation of that passenger, CANU officers subsequently proceeded to take the other two Jamaicans off the flight. The CANU official said further investigations led them to an apartment at Fifth Street, Alberttown. There, officers recovered fibre glass, plywood, a round piece of wood resembling the bottom of a dart board, fabric used in dartboards, knives, a spatula, scissors and carbon which was also found in the lining of the board after they cut it open and found the cocaine.
The Jamaicans, whose travel documents revealed that they had travelled to Guyana on April 15, had occupied the apartment. Officials broke open the dart board in the presence of media operatives at CANU headquarters yesterday and removed the substance, which weighed just over two pounds. Asked whether the detection could have been made by sniffer dogs, the officer said yes and added that once the dogs were effective enough they would have been able to pick up the drug even though it was carefully concealed. However, he pointed out that CANU did not own any such dogs, noting that the sniffer dogs that operate at the airport were owned by the Police Narcotics Branch.
