The discovery of a quantity of drugs in passenger luggage on an outgoing flight resulted in the arrest of several baggage handlers attached to a ground handling company at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri (CJIA) yesterday morning.
According to an airport source, four baggage handlers attached to the Timehri Handling Service who worked the early morning shift were fingered in the discovery of an undisclosed amount of cocaine, which was concealed in the luggage of a passenger on an outgoing EZjet Air flight.
The source said that ranks of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) discovered the drugs following a tip-off and the baggage handlers, who had been under surveillance by anti-narcotics agents at Timehri after the discovery of cocaine in March this year, were cautioned and subsequently taken into custody. Based on the evidence gathered so far by the law enforcement agencies, the source added that the men may be placed before the courts shortly in connection with the find.
In March this year, police discovered 10 kilos of cocaine, which was thrown over the perimeter fence at the CJIA.
A technician employed by an airline, who was in the vicinity at the time of the discovery, was questioned by the police but he was later released after no case was found against him by the police.
An anti-narcotics agent subsequently told Stabroek News that the drugs may have belonged to a drug trafficking ring that is using aircraft ground handling staff to sneak drugs on to outgoing flights. He said that the well-organised ring of drug traffickers may have been operating at the CJIA recently in coordination with persons in other countries.
The official explained that the drug enforcement unit was informed that persons would drive up to the fence at the airport during the early hours of the morning, in advance of the early morning flights.
He said that these persons would throw the drugs over the fence to be retrieved by their counterparts on the airside, who would pack them on flights whose cargo would have been cleared by the scanner and other security details at the airport.
