A 17-year-old girl who travelled from the Eugene F Correia International Airport (EFCIA) at Ogle to Barbados has alleged that she was subjected to a cavity search for drugs at Ogle.
The Customs Anti-Nar-cotic Unit (CANU) yesterday distanced itself from the reported search.
“I can tell you fairly and confidently that it was not CANU it was another agency”, Head of CANU, Brigadier Michael Atherly told Stabroek News when contacted.
The teen, who hails from Berbice was allegedly subjected to the search yesterday morning.
On reaching Barbados the teen related to her relatives that she was singled out for a narcotics search and was subjected to a female security rank inserting her fingers into her vagina and asking her to cough.
This newspaper tried contacting the girl’s relatives but was told that they were awaiting permission from the teen on if they should speak out.
At the airport, the Guyana Police Force’s Narcotics Unit, CANU and EFCIA security work collaboratively. But the latter two entities were quick to distance themselves from the allegations.
Atherly last night maintained that none of his officers was involved in any search at the airport yesterday.
He explained that his personnel would not conduct a search on a passenger’s cavity. He explained that if during a search there is reason to believe that a passenger is trafficking a narcotic, the passenger would be escorted to the hospital and a doctor would carry out the examination.
Spokesman for the airport, Kit Nascimento also distanced its security workers from the act saying that EFCIA security are not involved in strip searches.
“To the best of my knowledge our airport security would not be involved in a strip search… If they are doing a search and they come across narcotics they would inform the police or CANU rank,” Nascimento said.
Stabroek News was unable to contact Police Crime Chief Paul Williams for a comment as several calls to his phone were not answered.
