– suspected of ferrying cocaine in ‘belna’
THREE outgoing Delta Airlines passengers, who were early yesterday detained on suspicion that a quantity of rolling pins (belnas) in their possession may have contained cocaine, have since been released after tests on the items came up negative, a Chronicle source confirmed.

The passengers, two females and a male, all from one family and en route to New York via Delta Airlines, were initially detained at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, before being transported to the city, where tests were conducted on the rolling pins in question and their suitcases.

The trio, the Chronicle learnt, is due to resume their travel to New York today aboard one of two flights Delta Airlines has scheduled, having had to cancel yesterday’s DL 384 flight, because of mechanical problems.

Gerry Gouveia CEO of Roraima Airways, the ground-handling agents for Delta, confirmed the cancellation of the flights and reasons, adding that affected passengers were housed at hotels.

Security surveillance at the CJIA has recently been heightened following much criticisms after illicit drugs continue to make their way past the layers of security there.

On January 12 last, an outgoing passenger, Dorothy Sears, was busted upon arrival at the John F Kennedy (JFK) Airport in New York with 50 pounds of cocaine stashed in a pink suitcase. The woman, who also had marijuana concealed in her bra, is due for sentencing on October 29.

As a result of the ‘pink suitcase’ bust, four persons, a police dog-handler, a Roraima Group of Companies employee, and two Customs anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) officers were hauled before the courts. 

However, last week, the Full Court dismissed charges against the dog-handler and the Roraima employee.

And, on June 2 last, Chandinee Segobind was busted at JFK with a suitcase filled with cocaine packed in packages of Kerrygold milk powder.

Segobind departed Guyana aboard a Delta Airlines flight, and the cocaine was not detected by Timehri airport security, the police or CANU. (Wendella Davidson)