Authorities probing Canada cocaine bust

Local authorities are investigating Canada’s recent seizure of a large shipment of cocaine from a vessel believed to have travelled from here.

While details surrounding where the drug might have come from remain unclear up to last evening, the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) has launched an investigation, a source confirmed.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on its website had said that it joined forces with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) more than two weeks ago and carried out a major drug seizure where 81 kilos of the drug suspected to be cocaine was seized at the Port of Valleyfield.

The drugs were reportedly concealed in the hold of a vessel – Jacqueline C – that left Guyana from Linden.

Four persons were subsequently arrested and two – 36-year-old Roldan De Gorio Tit and 48-year-old Nazir Ahmad Hussain – have since been charged with conspiracy to import drugs for the purpose of trafficking.

The RCMP added that the investigation is ongoing and the drugs were reportedly heading for the Toronto and Vancouver markets.

A report in the Montreal Gazette had said that the drugs were seized on September 15 and were found in a vessel from Georgetown, Guyana that was transporting bauxite.

“After an initial search of the vessel, signs led us to concentrate on the front of the boat. And after a vigorous search, the cocaine was found concealed in bags in the hold of the vessel,” the Montreal Gazette had quoted CBSA Deputy Director Alain Surprenant as saying