PHILIPSBURG–A container addressed to what was said to be an Indian businessman in St. Maarten was seized at Port of Point Lisas in Trinidad and Tobago (TT) last week with 24 pounds of cocaine.

Several TT news media outlets reported on the bust on Sunday.

St. Maarten’s Chief of Police Carl John said in an invited comment on Sunday that the police were not officially contacted about the case, while Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Hazel Durand said the investigation is being conducted outside of St. Maarten.

The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian reported that TT po­lice had con­firmed in a press release that 24 pounds of co­caine bound for St Maarten had been seized at Port of Point Lisas last week Tues­day.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, around 9:00pm last Tues­day, Cus­toms of­fi­cers were scan­ning a con­tain­er at the ex­port di­vi­sion of the port when they picked up some­thing sus­pi­cious. The con­tain­er, which was trans­port­ed from Ma­tu­ri­ta, Ari­ma, was tak­en to the ex­am­i­na­tion sta­tion where Cus­toms of­fi­cers no­ticed what ap­peared to be co­caine hid­den in­side the con­tain­er, which was loaded with food­stuff. Po­lice and oth­er of­fi­cials were called in and con­firmed it was co­caine.

In­ves­ti­gat­ing of­fi­cers said the con­tain­er was ad­dressed to an In­di­an busi­ness­man in St Maar­ten.

The con­tain­er was sent by an Ari­ma, Trinidad, busi­ness­man, for whom TT police are currently on the hunt. According to the Guardian news report, it is sus­pect­ed that the (Arima) busi­ness­man is the same per­son who was set to re­ceive a con­tain­er filled with mar­i­jua­na from Ja­maica last year. He lat­er de­nied it was him and claimed no knowl­edge of the il­lic­it drugs.

Bron: Daily Herald