Ex-Coast Guard man held with $4M in ‘coke’

A FORMER Coast Guard officer who was trained in drug interdiction, was arrested at the Piarco International Airport on Monday afternoon with cocaine with a street value of $4 million.

The father of two was arrested by officers of the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit. Reports revealed that around 5.45 pm on Monday, OCNU officers, acting on a tip, executed two warrants on the former Coast Guard man who was at the holding bay of the airport waiting to board flight BW 900 to London. After being arrested, the luggage belonging to the 31-year-old man was searched and the drugs were allegedly found carefully concealed in a rubber compartment of the luggage. The drugs were weighed and then taken to the office of the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit. The man was taken to the Piarco Police Station where he was charged. He told police officers that he lived in Mayaro and Arouca. Police sources revealed that the man was wanted on two warrants for breaching a protection order. When he appeared in court late yesterday, he was refused bail and ordered to re-appear in court on October 9.