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Swallowing and smuggling: Guyana’s cocaine mules
Cocaine smugglers continue to find all manner of creative ways to smuggle the drug past the watchful eyes of Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) ranks who are stationed at the Cheddi Jagan and Eugene F. Correira International Airports.
The more desperate ones literally put their lives on the line by swallowing cocaine-filled pellets as a means of passing undetected through security checkpoints at these airports.
In May 2014, four persons including a six-year-old died after unknowingly drinking cocaine-laced SSS tonic.
It has been quite an unfortunate year for drug-swallowers.
At least three men were apprehended after they were observed sweating profusely and acting suspiciously.
They were taken to the hospital where x-rays confirmed that there were strange objects in their bodies. They later excreted pellets containing cocaine.
They were all jailed after pleading guilty to trafficking in narcotics.
Eaison Leblanc
LeBlanc was jailed for four years and fined $5.1M after he appeared before Senior Magistrate Fabayo Azore on June 7, and admitted to swallowing 71 pellets filled with cocaine.
The 35-year-old of 101 Ogle Street, Triumph, East Coast Demerara, admitted that between July 3 and July 4 at Woodlands Hospital, he had in his possession 774 grams of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
On June 3, LeBlanc was an outgoing passenger at the Eugene F Correia International Airport, Ogle East Coast Demerara, destined for Barbados.
JAILED: Julius Fidel
JAILED: Randolph Muir
JAILED: Eaison Leblanc
After observing LeBlanc sweating profusely and acting in a suspicious manner, CANU ranks apprehended and escorted him to the hospital where an x-ray revealed that he had pellet-like objects in his abdominal cavity.
He was given a laxative and excreted the pellets.
Before sentencing was passed on him, LeBlanc told the Magistrate, “I am sorry for what happened.”
Randolph Muir
He was also an outgoing passenger to Barbados. But at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport when he approached the checkpoint area, he began acting in a suspicious manner.
Upon questioning Muir, also known as ‘Roach’, he admitted to swallowing 72 pellets filled with cocaine. He was taken to the hospital where an x-ray confirmed that he had indeed ingested foreign objects which he later excreted.
On June 21, Muir of Lot 3 Enterprise, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara appeared before Magistrate Azore and admitted that between June 18 and June 19 at Woodlands Hospital he had in his possession 592 grams of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
He was jailed for three years and fined $1.5M.
Muir revealed that someone has promised him US$1,700 to traffick the illicit substance.
Julius Fidel
Like the other two traffickers, Fidel, of Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara was sent to prison for four years and fined $2.5M after confessing to Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan that he swallowed 114 pellets laced with cocaine.
During his court appearance on September 19, the father of four said that he opted to traffic cocaine because he is experiencing financial difficulties and needed the extra money to send his children to school. A lawyer for the accused had stressed that his client, who fathers an autistic child, is the sole earner for his family.
It was on September 12, that Fidel went to CJIA, where he was scheduled to board a Fly Jamaica flight destined for Canada. But as he approached the scanner, CANU ranks observed him acting suspiciously and began questioning him.
Based on his responses, the ranks escorted Fidel to the hospital where an x-ray confirmed that he had peculiar objects in his body. He subsequently excreted the pellets which contained 960 grams of cocaine during different intervals while hospitalized.
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