By Martin Hellicar
A SPECIAL constable serving at Larnaca airport master-minded the smuggling of a huge quantity of marijuana into the country, Larnaca District Court heard yesterday.
Andreas Flourentzou was remanded in custody for eight days in connection with what police have described as the biggest ever seizure of marijuana destined for the local market.
Investigating officer Andreas Vrionis told the court Flourentzou had planned the operation with Nicos Nicolaou, who was arrested at Larnaca airport on the night of September 24 after police said seven-and-a-half kilos of marijuana were found in his hand-luggage.
The court heard that 24-year-old Flourentzou, who was suspended from his duties following his arrest on Saturday, asked his supervisor to change his work rota so that he could be at the customs control desk when Nicolaou arrived on the 9pm flight from Amsterdam.
Vrionis said Nicolaou, 20, from Yeri village outside Nicosia, had named Flourentzou as an accomplice in a statement he made to police after his arrest. Nicolaou and another three youths police say were named in this confession – Andreas Charalambous, a 23-year-old private employee from Latsia outside Nicosia, unemployed 20-year-old Akis Afxentiou from Yeri near Nicosia, and Michalis Psaris, 20, unemployed, from the Nicosia suburb of Aglandjia – are already in custody.
Vrionis told the court Flourentzou had told Nicolaou he would warn him to dump the bag with the illegal drugs if he spotted drug squad officers in the arrivals lounge.
The court heard that Flourentzou was himself suspected of smuggling drugs into the country in the past and of working with a contact in Amsterdam to arrange smuggling by others.
In his statement to police, Nicolaou apparently said he had been given the drugs by a man in Holland. Police are seeking to arrest this man, whom they believe to be the Dutch link for a major drug-smuggling ring.
After his arrest, Flourentzou denied any links with Nicolaou or any of the other suspects, Vrionis said. But he apparently changed his tune after police informed him they had evidence that he had had telephone contact with the other suspects.
Flourentzou was originally arrested on Saturday night but had to be released 24 hours later as police could not secure a remand due to a stay- away protest by district judges on Sunday. The judges were striking over the proposed appointment on a non-member of the judiciary to the Supreme Court. He was re-arrested on Monday.
A Drug Squad officer said the 7,439 grams of marijuana confiscated from Nicolaou was “the biggest ever haul of marijuana which was to be sold within Cyprus.”
A total of over eight kilos of hashish were discovered in Nicolaou’s hand- luggage. Police searched the 20-year-old’s luggage after receiving a tip- off that he was smuggling a large quantity of narcotics from Holland.
