Choo-wee-nam charged in US with cocaine smuggling
- drug was in ship from Guyana
Stabroek News
February 28, 2004
Former national cyclist Paul Choo-wee-nam was charged in a US court yesterday with conspiracy to import more than five kilogrammes of cocaine. According to the Balti-more Sun, authorities seized about 155 kgs of cocaine when they arrested Choo-wee-nam at the Port of Baltimore in one of the city’s biggest drug busts in years. The paper said US Immi-gration and Custom Enforce-ment agents received a tip about the shipment this month. They were told a freighter carrying the drugs was coming from the Republic of Guyana, making a stop in Savannah, Georgia. After the freighter arrived in Savannah on Tuesday, authorities put it under surveillance all the way to Baltimore, which was the shipment’s destination. On Wednesday night, authorities said, Choo-wee-nam, 33, of Jamaica, New York, went to the shipping container’s location with four suitcases. After the container was opened in his presence, Choo-wee-nam allegedly put about 130 bricks of cocaine into the suitcases and loaded them into a car. He was arrested as he tried to leave the area and faces a possible life sentence and a US$4 million fine. The newspaper quoted Police Commissioner Kevin Clark as saying about Choo-wee-nam, “Here we have someone who was one of the upper-level people who traffics drugs into our city.” The commissioner announced the arrest at a news conference with US Attorney Thomas DiBiagio and other law enforcement officials. “This is a huge arrest,” Clark said. “This is a lot of drugs that’s not going to reach the streets of our city and probably some of the surrounding areas.” The cocaine weighed about 338 pounds. It would have had a street value of between US$25 million and US$40 million, Clark said. US officials said an investigation into the shipment was ongoing. Choo-wee-nam had faced cocaine trafficking charges before in Guyana. He had been arrested and charged followed a bust at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport nearly four years ago, when cocaine was discovered in a bicycle frame as a group of cyclists were about to leave for an overseas tour. Choo-wee-nam was subsequently freed of that charge.