Another Guyanese drug courier has been intercepted at the JFK International Airport, in New York, after being found with almost 3 kilogrammes of cocaine in bottles of cream liqueur apparently sourced from a duty-free shop at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.
Raphael Armstrong was held last Friday, shortly after he touched down aboard a Caribbean Airlines Flight from Georgetown, Guyana. He is the second person within the last month to be found with drugs hidden in alcohol purportedly sourced from an airport duty-free shop.
US Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent James Mundy says in the criminal complaint filed against Armstrong that Customs and Border Protection officers ap-proached him for an inspection. Armstrong presented a black suitcase and a “duty free” shopping bag for examination and acknowledged ownership of the items.
In the complaint, which was seen by Stabroek News, Mundy says the officers examined the suitcase without issue and Armstrong appeared to be calm. However, when the agents began their inspection of the “duty-free” bag, the officers noticed that he immediately focused his attention on the bag, which contained two 26-ounce bottles purported to be rum cream liqueur.
According to Mundy, one of the officers noticed that the cap was not sealed on one of the bottles and after removing the cap it was noticed that there was a strong odor. As a result, Armstrong was escorted to a private room for a secondary search and the substance from inside both bottles field tested positive for cocaine. The total amount recovered from the bottles was 2.88 kilogrammes.
Armstrong has since been charged and remanded to prison.
In a similar case last month, another man, Wilton Sinclair, was intercepted at the JFK Airport with 8.206 kilogrammes of cocaine hidden in four bottles of rum.
He was subsequently charged with possession of cocaine.
A security source recently told Stabroek News that Sinclair’s case suggested collusion be-tween the smuggler and staff at the airport, given the fact that the bottles of rum were packaged in duty-free bags.
