Fmr. Airline employee on cocaine charge nabbed after 2 years on the run

After almost two years on the run from police, a 34-year-old ‘C’ Field Sophia resident was charged with the illegal possession of cocaine possession aboard a Dynamic Airways flight.

Kennard Stephen De Jonge, a former bag handler at Roraima Airways, is the fifth person to appear before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, charged with conspiring to smuggle drugs in relation to this case.

Particular of the charge alleged that on February 1 and February 2, 2016, at Timehri, East Bank Demerara, he conspired with persons known and unknown to traffic 1.3 Kilos of cocaine.

The unrepresented man denied the charge and was remanded to prison until October 19, 2017. Immigration officers Oral David, 29; Orin Parris, 24; Raduskie Wright, 24 and security officer Diane Jackson, 31 are on trial before City Magistrate Leron Daly for the said offence.

The police had issued a wanted bulletin for De Jonge in February 2016, however, he was recently apprehended by police and arrested.

According to reports, a baggage handler at the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York had discovered the 1.3 kilos of cocaine in a small unidentified package in the cargo of the Dynamic Airways plane on February 2, 2016. It is believed that the drug was smuggled into the plane by someone who was not a passenger as it wasn’t found in a suitcase.