A 42-YEAR-OLD woman and a 22-year-old man were yesterday remanded in eight-day custody in Larnaca in connection with a 1.5 kilo drugs haul, police said.
The Iranian woman and Lebanese Cypriot are being investigated for conspiracy to commit a felony, illegal importation and possession of narcotics, illegal possession of narcotics with intent to sell, forgery, circulating false documents and impersonation.
Larnaca Drug Law Enforcement Unit (DLEU) commander Makis Panayiotou said: “In co-operation with customs authorities and the security authorities of a foreign country [the DLEU] managed to located and impound a television recently imported to the Republic and which contained 1,300 grams of cannabis.”
The DLEU was tipped off about the find by Belgian authorities on January 21. The information they received was that a 1,300 grams of high quality marijuana had been found at the offices of a private transport company, hidden in a television, and which was bound for Cyprus.
The package was addressed to someone in Yermasoyia. Investigations later determined the recipient’s name was false.
The Belgian authorities confiscated the drugs but the package was sent on to the transport company at Larnaca airport on Monday. The police arranged for the television’s delivery to the address on the package. The home address belonged to the 42-year-old woman who took the package to give it to her son, police said.
This did not, however, happen. Instead someone contacted the transport company and asked for the package to be delivered to another address in Limassol. The following day officers delivered the package to the address where they located the 22-year-old Lebanese Cypriot. The later showed investigators a fake residence permit and false documents, which apparently belong to the person supposed to take delivery of the package.
Both the man and woman were arrested for questioning. The 22-year-old has allegedly pleaded guilty and said he had agreed to take delivery of the drugs for a fee of €500. He then allegedly named the final recipient of the drugs, who is a known drug dealer and has been on the DLEU’s radar since 2008, the court heard.
Police are expected to question other people in connection with the case and investigations are also being conducted through Europol and Interpol to determine the Belgian sender.
“We’ve had testimony about a third person who seems to be the final recipient of the package. Preliminary investigations suggest the recipient is wanted for an organised drug trafficking ring,” said Panayiotou.
