The Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) and Dynamic Airways’ local handler Roraima Airways are working with the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) in its investigations into how cocaine got into the baggage compartment of one of the airline’s planes that left here for the John F Kennedy Airport, New York on Tuesday.
“We are waiting to get more details out of New York but we are doing investigations here on what happened at CJIA,” Head of Roraima Airways Gerry Gouveia told Stabroek news yesterday.
CJIA officials said they are also partnering with CANU, which is leading the local investigation.
Stabroek News understands that a JFK baggage handler discovered 1.3kg of the drug in a small unidentified package in the cargo hold.
Head of CANU James Singh had confirmed that the drug was found in the holding compartment of the plane in New York and said his agency is currently undertaking investigations from this end. It is believed that the drug was smuggled onto the plane by someone who was not a passenger as it was found not in luggage, but by itself in the baggage hold.
In 2012, a Roraima Airways employee, Sydney Matthews, who was attached to the Aviation Security Division, was charged after being allegedly found with 1.8kg of cocaine on his person at the airport. A Commission of Inquiry, ordered by Gouveia, did not find any wrongdoing on the company’s part although it suggested human resources lapses.
