In a shocking twist of events, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) had no choice but to release two suspects they accused of attempting to traffic cocaine in several milk packets when further tests confirmed that the item was actually milk.
“Further tests conducted yesterday August 18, 2021, by the Guyana Forensic Science Laboratory on twelve packets labelled Fernleaf Milk, that were suspected by the police to have contained a mixture of cocaine, have revealed no trace of the narcotic in their contents,” the GPF said in a release on Thursday.
The milk packets had been seized on Monday (August 16, 2021) from an outgoing female passenger at the Eugene F. Correia International Airport, Ogle, following a search found 10.7 pounds (4.873 kg) of suspected cocaine in her luggage.
Police said that the 34-year-old self-employed woman of New Street, Cumberland, Canje, Berbice, was observed acting in a suspicious manner at about 10:10h at the airport.
She was bound for Barbados on Caribbean Airlines Flight BW 217. Ranks found several packets of milk among clothing and other stuff.
Two packs of the milk were tested using the narcotic testing kit and indicated that it was cocaine.
The woman was then told of the offence and subsequently arrested. Police said the woman initially remained silent, but later claimed that someone (male, name withheld) had given her the items to drop to Barbados.
Ranks then contacted the other suspect and he was arrested. Police reported that the man confessed to giving the woman the items to take to Barbados, but denied knowing that it was drugs.
This is what is commonly referred to as a “dry run”. Somebody wanted to see what happened when milk powder went thru de scanning device. Back to the drawing board.