Ex-media worker awaits sentencing for attempting to smuggle cocaine through CJIA

– GRA employee, ex-CANU officer released on $1.5M bail

A former Communications Officer at the Department of Public Information (DPI), an ex-Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) employee, and a Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) officer have been charged over the discovery of $60 million in cocaine at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).

Ex-DPI worker, Zanneel Nirmala Williams, 25, of Lamaha Gardens, Georgetown; former CANU officer Anil Sookhoo, 33, of Kuru Kururu, Soesdyke-Linden Highway; and GRA officer Shameka Caesar, 27, of D’Urban Street, Wortmanville, Georgetown, appeared before Magistrate Sunil Scarce at the Diamond Golden/Grove Magistrates’ Courts.
Williams pleaded guilty to the charge which stated that on April 22 at the Timehri, East Bank Demerara (EBD) airport, she had 9.628 kilograms of cocaine in her possession for the purpose of trafficking. As a result of her guilty plea, Williams was remanded to prison until May 30 when she will be sentenced. Magistrate Scarce ordered that a psychiatric evaluation be performed on her. A probation report will also be compiled on her. Meanwhile, Sookhoo and Caesar denied the charge and were each released on $750,000 bail.

On the day in question, Williams was an outgoing passenger on a JetBlue flight destined for the JFK International Airport, USA, when CANU officers found a quantity of cocaine inside her hand luggage. As a result, she was arrested and taken to CANU’s Headquarters where another set of cocaine was found strapped to her body.
Based on investigations, Police later arrested Sookhoo and Caesar. The cocaine found in her luggage amounted to 7.962 kilograms while another 1.666 kilograms of cocaine was found strapped to her body. The narcotic had a total street value of over GY$5 million and upon arrival in the US it would have been worth US$300,000 (GY$60 million).