More cocaine from Guyana has been seized by Canada in another shipment of fruit – this time in star apples.
Yesterday’s Vancouver Sun reported that the RCMP announced that police and Canada Border Services Agency investigators seized 20 kilogrammes of cocaine from a star apple shipment at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. It reported that the star apples were part of a larger shipment from Guyana that included pineapples and mangoes.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin Nicholson said much of it was “mush” by the time it arrived in Canada, he said.
He said that the shipment raised flags because Guyana is not known to export a lot of fruit to Canada.
The report noted that the seizure comes on the heels of an announcement late last month that authorities had seized 28 kilogramnes of cocaine — with an estimated street value of CDN$3.5 million — in two shipments of hollowed-out pineapples from Guyana at the port in Saint John, N.B.
The drugs were discovered using X-ray technology and drug-sniffing dogs, the report said.
Many different methods have been used to smuggle cocaine from Guyana into Canada. Several years ago large amounts were seized in two shipments of bottles of pepper sauce. A variety of fruits and prepared foods have been used by local smugglers to get cocaine into Canada and other places.
