A 29-year-old Guyanese woman will now spend her Christmas behind bars after she was nabbed at the Sao Paulo Airport, Brazil, moments after she arrived there with just over five pounds of cocaine concealed in several pieces of undergarments.
Maranda Cozier reportedly left Guyana through the crossing at Lethem, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) on December 12 to travel to the neighbouring Portuguese-speaking country.
Some five days later, while she was at the Sao Paulo Airport in Brazil, law enforcement officials on duty subjected the woman and her belongings to a routine check.
It was during this search that the Brazilian officers discovered that she had 2295 grams of cocaine stashed in four different packets of underwear.
She was immediately arrested by those ranks and began to be questioned about the origin of the cocaine and the location to which she had been transporting the illegal substance.
Shortly after the woman’s arrest in Brazil, that country’s drug enforcement authorities contacted local enforcement officials to notify them about the incident.
According to information received, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) was directly informed about the situation and ranks have already begun a probe of their own here in Guyana.
At this time, it is uncertain as to whether the woman was a ‘drug mule’ who was carrying the cocaine to a supplier or buyer in Brazil or if she had just been passing through that country with the illegal substance with another country set as her destination with it.
In fact, it is unsure as to whether she obtained the cocaine from a supplier right in Brazil and had busted when she was making her way out of that country.
However, drug enforcement agencies from both Brazil and Guyana are said to be working hand-in-hand on this case with the hopes of discovering where the cocaine originated from, how it passed through the border undetected, and who it was destined for.
