Guyanese held at JFK Airport with coke-in-rum

Last Updated on Thursday, 10 September 2015, 15:49 by GxMedia

Cleveland Charles arrived in New York on Saturday aboard a Caribbean Airlines flight from Georgetown, Guyana, and was selected for inspection by Customs and Border Protection officers.

Sharp-eyed officers focused on a bottle of 12-year-old El Dorado rum inside Charles’ suitcase.

Charles said he had purchased it at a duty-free shop at the airport in Guyana, the Brooklyn Federal Court complaint says.

A Customs officer “then opened the bottle, which contained a thick syruplike substance with a strong odor that appeared inconsistent with rum,” Department of Homeland Security special agent Scott Salamon stated in the complaint.

A field test of the liquid came up positive for cocaine, according to Salamon.