Woman nabbed at airport with cocaine in suitcases

Ranks from the Customs and Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) yesterday morning busted a woman on an outgoing flight to the US with a large quantity of cocaine concealed in false compartments of three suitcases, at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.

Stabroek News understands that the woman, who was scheduled to travel on a Caribbean Airlines flight, was allowed three suitcases because she was travelling with a child. The illegal substance was reportedly found in false bottoms and side compartments of the luggage.

Attempts to get more information from CANU were unsuccessful as its head, James Singh, is overseas and no one else wanted to comment on the bust. It is understood that the woman was about to check-in the luggage when they were searched and the illegal substance was discovered.

The latest bust by CANU follows two embarrassing slip ups at the airport when two women managed to get past with large quantities of cocaine and were subsequently busted in New York. The two slip-ups resulted in the police getting rid of their two sniffer dogs, which never made a bust and pledging to buy new ones. A major conference was also held with all the stakeholders at the airport to come up with mechanisms to plug the leak-caused by the human factor-at the airport.

On June 2, a woman, Chandinee Segobind, checked in a suitcase filled with cocaine packed in Kerry Gold milk packets, which was not detected by Timehri airport security, the police or CANU. The suitcase left the airport on a Delta flight and was intercepted at the John F Kennedy Airport, in New York.

On January 12, 50 pounds of cocaine were discovered in the US packed in a pink suitcase. Dorothy Sears had checked-in the suitcase at the airport but she was arrested in New York on arrival there. Sears had admitted that she had checked-in the pink suitcase and stated that she had been instructed by an individual in Guyana not to pick up the bag.