…after being busted with cocaine at JFK
Several Guyanese are facing drug trafficking charges after they were separately busted at the John F Kennedy (JKF) Airport in New York, United States with cocaine over the past few days.
This week, Guyanese business owner Luke Kendall, was nabbed with cocaine pellets in his stomach upon his arrival on September 20, 2018, in the United States.
According to reports, Kendall arrived on a flight from Georgetown, Guyana and was subjected to a routine search by immigration agents at the airport. He was reportedly visiting the United Stated to purchase items for a business that he usually operates for his mother.
However, when the man was asked by the agents to provide names and contact numbers for the per-sons he was visiting, those persons indicated that they had no idea Kendall was visiting. By this time, the ranks ordered the man to undergo an X-ray examination after which it was revealed that he had ingested cocaine pellets.
Further examinations showed that the drug mule had more than 200 pellets containing the illegal drug, which he swallowed. He later admitted to swallowing more than three pounds of the substance.
Kendall was charged and arraigned with the offence on September 24, 2018, before Magistrate Judge Steven Tiscione. His preliminary hearing is set for October 8.
Meanwhile, a young mother of Ituni, Upper Demerara River, is similarly facing drug trafficking charges after she was apprehended at with some 200 cocaine pellets in her stomach two Saturdays ago. The woman, Odessa Edmondson, who travelling with her baby, was intercepted by US Customs and Bor-der agents.
Agents observed Edmondson perspiring and acting in a suspicious manner which led agents to ques-tion her further. It was then that the young woman reportedly admitted to ingesting the pellets, re-vealing that she was going to be paid some US$6000 to smuggle the drugs into the United States. Ed-mondson reportedly excreted the pellets weighing over three pounds. As such, charges have since been filed against her.
Guyanese Kurt and Maria Bruney were recently nabbed in similar circumstances when they were both busted by US Customs and Border officers at the JFK Airport. The couple allegedly attempted to smug-gle hundreds of cocaine pellets into the US, after arriving in New York on a flight from Guyana on Sep-tember 23.
The husband was reportedly approached by officers to do an X-ray and just then, his partner in life and crime reportedly spilled the beans that they had ingested cocaine pellets. The East Coast Demerara couple both cumulatively had well over 200 cocaine pellets in their systems, with the contents of an excreted pellet testing positive for cocaine. Reports indicate that a sum of US$6000 was promised for his efforts, which was a similar amount to that of the suspected Linden mule.
These individuals follow in the footsteps of several locals who were busted in the US attempting to smuggle drugs. The majority of the mules have been identified as women and they would often blame their economic and single-parent status for drug smuggling. However, Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) Deputy Head Lesley Ramlall recently outlined that one’s economic circumstances is no excuse for drug smuggling. As reported in sections of the media, CANU is working closely with the US immigra-tion unit to probe the “cocaine ring”.
