Greene, who was asked about the investigation at the recent opening of the police officers’ conference, said that the force has completed its investigation and is now awaiting advice. Asked specifically about the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) supervisor-who was held and later, released on $50,000 bail-the commissioner said the man remains a suspect.
The CANU supervisor has been suspended since the incident while CANU, the police and New York authorities collaborated in a joint investigation.
Reports are that authorities received information that the supervisor may have enabled the pink suitcase with the orange ribbon, which contained the narcotics, to get onto the Delta Airlines flight without its contents being detected. While there are cameras at the airport, it is unclear if anyone was caught on tape handling the suitcase. However, it was revealed that the supervisor did deal with the woman, Dorothy Sears, who checked the suitcase in, at the airport. Sears was subsequently busted with marijuana in her brassiere and the cocaine suitcase at the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York.
The supervisor has occupied his post at the airport for almost 13 years, since the unit became and semi-autonomous agency. It was during a customs examination at JFK of Sears’ carry-on luggage that she was reportedly “nervous, sweating profusely and avoiding eye contact.”
She was asked if she had any checked luggage and responded in the negative. “A pat-down search was then conducted of the defendant’s person and a hard object was found concealed in the defendant’s bra.
“The hard object was found to be a plastic bag containing a green leafy substance,” court documents said. Faced with this discovery, which was later determined to be marijuana, Sears then 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.
She told US authorities that she was to be paid US$6,000 for checking in the suitcase by an individual in Guyana. She said she thought initially the suitcase had marijuana but when she received it, she believed it contained cocaine because of the weight and the amount of money she was to receive.
