A WOMAN is in police custody following another drug bust at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CIJA) yesterday morning. Police said at about 05:05 hours yesterday a member of the Special Constabulary on duty at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) carried out a search on an outgoing female Guyanese passenger travelling on a Caribbean Airlines Flight.
During the search 662 grammes of cocaine were found concealed under a wig cap that she was wearing at the   time.
She is in custody assisting with the investigations.
On July 13, 2010 a female Guyanese passenger was arrested after ranks of the Police Narcotics Branch unearthed two kilograms, 90 grammes of cocaine in two suitcases with false bottoms at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).
The discovery was made around 13:45 hrs as anti-narcotics ranks were scanning baggage bound for St. Maarten on a LIAT flight.
Police said the cocaine, found in 18 packets, was concealed in the false bottoms of the two suitcases.
The find resulted from heightened vigilance by Police anti-narcotics ranks at the international airport.
This increased surveillance has been enforced and rigorously pursued in the wake of a worrying trend in the discovery of varying quantities of cocaine in baggage arriving at the JFK airport in New York and emanating from Guyana.
Consequently, the Guyana government, in recent months has been intensifying pressure on airport employees to ensure that any attempt at smuggling cocaine out of the country is intercepted and stamped out.
A woman in a similar bid at smuggling cocaine from Guyana into the United States was found guilty by a jury of trafficking in narcotics in September, 2009.
The woman, Shaundell Ricketts, in whose baggage five kilograms of cocaine were found stashed in a suitcase with false bottoms, arrived at the JFK airport on September 8, 2009 on a Delta Airlines flight from Guyana.
On arrival at the airport, the woman claimed two soft-sided roller ‘Gotcha’ suitcases neatly plastic wrapped.
When officers at the airport checked her luggage it was found that the smaller suitcase had a false bottom that contained five kilogrammes of cocaine.
Authorities in late May arrested Kittitian national, Dexter Lewis and Guyanese, Adrian Beckles, attempting to smuggle drugs, a gun and ammunition from Guyana to St. Kitts via a LIAT flight out of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
The checked luggage contained 1 kilogram 109 grams of cocaine, a Magnum revolver and 15 rounds of 9 mm ammunition.
Following several major Guyana-originated drug-finds by security at the JFK airport, authorities believe that only 10 percent of the cocaine is intercepted by anti-drug agents, partly due to suspected collusion by people who work at the airport so that the illicit substance is not detected by the scanners or the lone sniffer-dog.
The Guyana Police Force plans to buy new drug-sniffers next year.