ANTIGUA: Antiguans Arrested Smuggling Cocaine At Gatwick

Two Antiguan nationals were arrested on their arrival at London’s Gatwick International Airport after they were intercepted with cocaine concealed in their luggage.

The couple, 27-year-old Omarie Benjamin and Sheba Charles 27, was nabbed by Border Force Officers as they were proceeding through Immigration Control to retrieve their suitcases on October 28, a police source said.

The duo arrived in London on a Virgin Atlantic flight, VS 90, from St Lucia.

Prior to their arrival to the UK the duo left Antigua to holiday in St Lucia.

Reports are that border security officers examined the couple’s luggage –a suitcase each– and both contained cocaine amounting to two kilograms.

After confirming the luggage belonged to the two Antiguans, they were arrested by the UK authorities.

Well-placed sources revealed that Benjamin, of All Saints, is a taxi driver while Charles, who lives on Old Parham Road, is employed with a local restaurant in St John’s.

On August 26, A local fire police officer, an Antiguan national, was caught with four kilogrammes of the illegal substance strapped to her body.

The woman, 36-year-old Sceneta Nanton was convicted and sentence to four years for drug trafficking.

Meantime, British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Victoria Dean said she is very concerned with the number of people who have been apprehended attempting to take illegal drugs into the UK, in recent times.

She said people who try to take drugs into the UK are not very successful.

“It concerns us that anybody is doing it, but the message that we need to put out is that you will be caught and you will be punished. This is not an easy way in,” Dean said.