Woman, 23, remanded for smuggling cocaine in Havan Kund

Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus on Thursday remanded a 23-year-old Guyanese TikToker who was busted while attempting to smuggle $560,000 worth of cocaine in a Havan Kund at DHL.

Lisa Ramnarine of Hague, West Coast Demerara (WCD) appeared in that Georgetown Magistrate’s Court and denied that on June 7 at DHL’s Fifth Street, Alberttown, Georgetown offices, she had 540 grammes of cocaine in her possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Her matter has been adjourned to July 5.
Ranks of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) on Tuesday arrested the young woman who attempted to ship the cocaine hidden in a Havan Kund. Reports are that CANU officers, acting on information received, went to the DHL Headquarters and intercepted a parcel containing a Hindu Havan Kund and other religious items.
“The officers examined the items and discovered a hidden compartment within the Kund, which was suspected to contain narcotics. Further examinations determined that a substance suspected to be cocaine was concealed within the religious item,” the anti-narcotics agency said.
It was reported that the sender’s information was retrieved from the package, and this led CANU ranks to Ramnarine, who was arrested and escorted to CANU Headquarters, where the item was dismantled in her presence and the suspected narcotics was revealed.
CANU has said the cocaine had a street value of US$2500-US$2700, but would have been worth more had it reached its intended destination.
In February 2021, CANU ranks had unearthed 294 grammes of cocaine concealed in a box at the DHL Alberttown, Georgetown location. Acting on information received, the ranks conducted a search at the shipping business, during which they discovered a multi-coloured floral box.
Upon checking the box, the cocaine was found in a false wall at the bottom.
One person was arrested in relation to that discovery.
One week prior, a Christianburg, Linden couple was arrested for attempting to ship cocaine concealed in fudge via DHL. Shaka Nunes, a 36-year-old labourer, had pleaded guilty to a narcotic trafficking charge and had received a four-year sentence along with a fine of $1.7M.
The charge against his wife was subsequently withdrawn.
It was reported that on February 15, 2021, Nunes had given his wife a box filled with several snacks and asked her to ship it to the United States of America (USA).
The DHL Georgetown branch summoned CANU about the suspicious package that had arrived from its Linden branch. This resulted in an inspection, and the field test conducted on the contents of the box revealed that the fudge contained 3.692 kilogrammes of cocaine.
As a result, CANU ranks visited the mailing address in Linden, where they met Nunes’s wife, who told them that her husband had given her the package to post.