Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 April 2015, 10:12 by GxMedia
The 70-year old Guyanese woman, who was caught with 1.92 kilogramme of cocaine on arrival at the John F. Kennedy International Airport, first raised alarm bells by her body language leadingl federal agents found a hard object near her groin.
A United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent states in court documents that Olive Fowler, travelling on a tourist visa, was selected for a search shortly after disembarking a Caribbean Airlines flight on April 11, 2015.
“While examining the defendant’s baggage, CBP officers noticed that the defendant was sweating profusely and avoiding eye contact with the officers,” states Special Agent with the US Department of Homeland Security, Kyler Hardin.
Hardin suggested that her initial reaction prompted investigators to conduct a body search when they stumbled on the hard object in her lower region. “CBP officers conducted a pat-down search of the defendant and found a dense, hard material under the defendant’s clothes in the area of the defendant’s groin and buttocks,” the Special Agent added.
The drug was found stashed in transparent plastic underneath two pairs of compression shorts over underwear.
It was at that stage that, according to Hardin, the woman gave up and handed over the cocaine to the CBP agents. “The passenger removed the substance and the packaging from her body and gave it to CBP officers,” states the court document.
A field test of the white powdery substance proved that it was cocaine that the woman was carrying, according to the court document.
She returns to court on April 27 before Judge Roanne L. Mann in a New York Eastern District Court.