A 19-year-old female was on Friday evening “busted” by ranks of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit after they acted on intelligence that she had swallowed a number of cocaine pellets.

At the time, the woman was preparing to board a flight from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport to the John F. Kennedy International Airport on flight BW592.
According to what the Guyana Chronicle was told, the woman was approached by customs officers moments after exiting a taxi and taken into a room where she was questioned.
There she was asked a series of questions, but when the same questions were put to her again she provided answers which contradicted her earlier responses.

That raised the ranks’ suspicion and they decided to escort the woman to a private hospital where an X-ray was conducted and it was found that she had foreign bodies inside her.
A decision was taken to transfer her to another hospital where she was held under guard and up to mid-afternoon on Saturday, she had excreted a total of 44 pellets which were suspected to be cocaine.

CANU ranks did additional work and went to two locations on the East Coast of Demerara where they conducted searches. At one of the locations, two persons were arrested and when they moved to the other location farther up on the East Coast, they attempted to carry out an arrest of a suspect.

The man however removed a number of louvre panes from the house and escaped from the enforcement officer who showed up there.
A search of the house was nevertheless conducted and it was found that there were a total of 200 pellets already wrapped and packed in a section of the house.

The ranks are of the view that the pellets were to be issued to other swallowers.
The taxi driver who was hired to carry the teen to the airport was also detained and his vehicle impounded, but he was subsequently released.

Added to that, two sisters and a boyfriend of one of the females were also arrested in addition to the mule and her mother, who had accompanied her to the airport. In addition to the man who fled from the officers, one other is also being sought.