Drug ring with Guyana link busted
Guyana Chronicle
February 25, 2007
(TRINIDAD EXPRESS) -- An international drug ring involving persons from Trinidad, Canada, Guyana, London and the United States has been interrupted by officers of the Organised Crime Narcotics and Firearms Bureau (OCNFB).
The officers claimed success after their latest seizure on Thursday afternoon, when OCNFB detectives raided a Champs Fleurs guesthouse and arrested two Nigerian nationals and a Trinidad resident.
A few minutes later, a Russian woman was held while attempting to board a Caribbean Airlines flight to London with packages of cocaine strapped to her body.
Up to Friday, OCNFB detectives had seized cocaine with an estimated street value of over $8 million.
The Russian woman, Sanda Tamasausku, 21, a hairdresser from Latvia, appeared in the Arima Magistrates' Court before Senior Magistrate Debra Quintyne Friday afternoon and was denied bail. Tamasausku is expected to re-appear on March 5.
She is charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and attempting to export a prohibited drug, the latter being a Customs and Excise charge.
Police reports state that around 4.30 p.m. on Thursday, OCNFB officers were on duty at the Piarco International Airport when they were alerted to a woman acting suspiciously as she was about to board Caribbean Airlines flight CA 900 to Heathrow Airport, London.
The woman was stopped and searched by officers, who discovered 1.07 kilos of cocaine strapped to her body. The cocaine has an estimated street value of $400,000.
In an earlier exercise, narcotics detectives arrested two Nigerian males, aged 31 and 32, and a 39-year-old Trinidadian female in a guesthouse.
The woman, from Cumuto, is employed as a security officer and will appear before Senior Magistrate Lianne Lee Kim in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates' 4A Court tomorrow to answer charges of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
Police said the trio had been under surveillance for some time and when the room which they occupied was raided, cocaine was found stuffed in several cartons of Crayola markers, flash lights and thermos flasks.
Cocaine was also found in the lining of a suitcase.
OCNFB officers said the cocaine, which was in a powdery form, weighed 4.2 kilos and had an estimated street value of $1.7 million. The cocaine, officers added, was to be shipped to North America and Europe.
Senior narcotics officers said both busts were made after intensive surveillance exercises and remain amazed at the innovative concepts that are being adopted by drug mules in a bid to traffic both cocaine and marijuana.
It was only on Monday that OCNFB detectives seized cocaine valued at over $5 million aboard a Caribbean Airlines aircraft at Piarco. The cocaine, stored in pellets, were hidden inside carailli and were part of a vegetable shipment that had left Guyana. The flight was in-transit to Trinidad on a flight destined to Toronto, Canada.
Contacted Friday, Guyana custom officials said they were unaware of the bust and noted that their security system at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport was up to mark. No one was held in connection with that bust, but senior local narcotics officials said they are pursuing various leads.
The exercises were spearheaded by ASPs Franklyn Edwards and Allan Crooks.
It was only last week that Caribbean Airlines director of Corporate Affairs Dionne Ligoure boasted that Caribbean Airlines' security systems "meet and surpass the regulatory standards required by all airlines".