Biker Stephen Vieira, who was arrested on May 18 in connection with the recent Zeelugt cocaine find, was released on Monday without any charge laid against him by the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU).

Vieira appeared before Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on Monday with his lawyer, Latchmi Rahamat during which CANU Prosecutor, Konyo Sandiford made an application for Vieira’s arrest warrant to be recalled. The warrant was issued on May 16.

Vieira was arrested at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport after arriving on a flight from Jamaica. He was detained by the police and later handed over to CANU. CANU issued a bulletin for Vieira, two days after finding $550 million worth of cocaine in dug out timber pallets that were being prepared for export to the US.

As investigations continue into the cocaine bust, race car driver Nazim Gafoor and his father Tazim Gafoor were released Thursday last, but are required to visit CANU headquarters on a daily basis pending the outcome of the investigations.

Sawmill owner, Narine Lall is still out of the jurisdiction. On May 12, members of CANU swooped down on a lumber yard at Lot 227 Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo, where they conducted a search on a truck that was laden with several pallets of 1×6 dressed lumber that was being prepared for export to the US.

During the search, several boards were reportedly drilled randomly and revealed a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine. The truck was escorted to CANU headquarters where the lumber was further examined and proved that each of the compromised boards had a dugout cavity with vacuum sealed plastic packets containing cocaine pasted therein.  A total of 84.986 kilograms of cocaine was found.