CJIA cocaine bust: US-based Guyanese jailed for 4 years for drugs in milk powder packets
…local singer remanded
After pleading guilty to trafficking 6.070 kilograms of cocaine, US-based Guyanese Cranson Henry was jailed for four years and fined $30,000 by Senior Magistrate Sunil Scarce on Monday.
Jailed: Cranson Henry
The man, 52, of Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara (WCD), and of Rockaway Avenue 11212 Brooklyn, New York, USA, appeared at the Diamond/Golden Grove Magistrates’ Courts.
In the absence of the certificate of value, Henry was fined only $30,000 instead of three times the street value of the drug. The street value of the narcotic is $13.3 million.
His co-accused, 44-year-old Mark Ferdinand of Samaria Dam, Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara (WBD), denied the charge and was remanded to prison until Monday, March 27.
He appeared before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
Remanded: Mark Ferdinand
The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) reported that Henry, an outgoing passenger at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) destined for New York, was questioned after seven Milex milk packets containing a whitish powdery substance was seen in his suitcase.
CANU, in a release on the bust, said Henry admitted to having a quantity of narcotics in his luggage, and as such he was arrested and escorted to CANU Headquarters.
The substance subsequently tested positive for cocaine, weighed approximately 13.4 lbs. (6.070 kilograms), and has a street value of $13.3 million, CANU said.
The milk powder packets containing cocaine that were discovered in Cranson Henry’s suitcase
According to CANU, further investigations led to the arrest of Mark Ferdinand, a singer, who had been arrested in 2015 in the United States of America for drug trafficking.
According to the law enforcement agency, Berkeley Ferdinand, the brother of Mark, had been charged by CANU in 2016 for trafficking in narcotics, and had been imprisoned for three years. (G1)
