A man is now in police custody in New York after he admitted to officials at the JFK International Airport that he had swallowed approximately 60 pellets of cocaine.
On Monday, Carlton Franklin arrived at the JFK airport aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Georgetown and was stopped for an enforcement examination by a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer. He had his baggage searched but nothing was found. However after further scrutiny by airport officials, he later confessed to swallowing the pellets of cocaine, court documents seen by this newspaper reveal.
Franklin, who said he had travelled to Guyana on vacation, was originally scheduled to return to the US on August 24, but indicated to the authorities that he had missed his flight. After Franklin appeared nervous during his interaction with the CBP officer, the officer escorted him to a private search area to conduct a pat-down search. This search was also negative, but the defendant continued to exhibit nervous behaviour.
According to the court documents, Franklin told the CBP officer that an individual was waiting for him outside the terminal and provided a name and number for that person. A call was placed to the number provided and an individual answered, identifying himself by the same name that the defendant had provided to the CBP officer. The individual on the phone denied knowing the defendant and denied coming to the airport to pick up any passenger before hanging up the phone.
Franklin was then presented with an x-ray consent from, which he appeared to read and understand and which he voluntarily signed. He then admitted that he swallowed approximately 60 pellets of cocaine. He was then taken to the medical facility at JFK where the x-ray was taken. The x-ray revealed the presence of foreign bodies in his intestinal tract.
The documents said Franklin passed 14 pellets, one of which was probed and field-tested positive for the presence of cocaine. He is to be detained at the JFK medical facility until he has passed all the pellets contained within his intestinal tract.
