Jailed for 1.3 kilos of cocaine

By George Psyllides

A 32-year-old man and a woman, 32, both from Limassol, were jailed for seven and six years respectively on Friday, after they were found guilty of trafficking 1.3 kilos of cocaine.

Giorgos Georgiou and Eleni Gerasimou were found guilty of illegal importation of drugs, and possession with intent to supply.

A third defendant, 26-year-old Christina Kleanthous, who is married to Georgiou, got a three-year suspended sentence. The couple have a three-year-old boy.

Georgiou and Gerasimou were arrested on February 20 on their way back from Pyla – a village inside the bufferzone in Larnaca with Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot residents.

Their car was intercepted by the drug squad near the Kalo Horio roundabout.

Georgiou gave up a plastic bag with one gramme of cannabis while officers found €4,900 in cash on Gerasimou.

Inside the car, officers found a travel bag with a retractable handle, which was found to contain four small cylindrical packages with white powder.

Four more packets were found in the passenger door upholstery.

Georgiou claimed that he had been instructed by a third person to go to a specific location in Limassol, take the cash and give it to Gerasimou, whom he picked up in the Turkish-occupied north.

He was meant to deliver the drugs to another person and receive €2,000.

Gerasimou claims she travelled from London to Amsterdam to pick up the drugs and bring them to Cyprus through the Tymbou airport in the north.

She said she was paid €7,500 for the job.

Kleanthous admitted she knew of the deal and that she provided the defendants with assistance.

A European arrest warrant has been issued for the person who gave the drugs to Gerasimou.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.