Silence surrounds latest HIA drugs incident

By usually reliable account, in late November 2013 several packages of cocaine were discovered on board a Toronto-bound Air Canada flight as it prepared for take-off from Hewanorra Airport. At the time of the incident the St. Lucia Air and Seaports Authority had turned down all our invitations to comment. When finally the then corporate communications manager at SLASPA addressed the matter it was only to say the matter was under investigation. Meanwhile, this paper had been reliably informed that at least two employees of CDSL, the ground handling company at Hewanorra, had been suspended.

The STAR also learned subsequently that airport security had been beefed up, although not sufficiently it would seem. Just last month, our sources say, Miami authorities discovered some eight kilos of cocaine on a Delta flight out of Hewanorra. Eight CDSL employees have since been placed on suspension.

Again this paper’s efforts at confirming the latest incident have proved futile. We were informed that both SLASPA’s general manager and its communications officer were unavailable for comment.

Acting police commissioner Errol Alexander however confirmed there have been two recent incidents of drugs being discovered at HIA, one of them being a “controlled delivery”—meaning an individual suspected of transporting contraband had been permitted to travel to his or her destination while surreptitiously tailed by law enforcement agencies.