Filenews 14 September 2023
Ten kilos of drugs hidden in packages of cereals and biscuits that arrived at Larnaka airport, were seized by the Department of Customs and Excise in the first week of September on two separate occasions, resulting in the arrest of five people.
According to an announcement by the Department of Customs, "following an inspection of three postal packages carried out at the Postal Exchange area at Larnaka Airport on Friday 1st and Friday eight September, 10 kg of cannabis hidden in packages of cereals and biscuits were located and seized by the Department of Customs".
The three postal packages "with different recipients and origin in Canada, had the first two as declared content as 'Clothing' while the third was declared as 'Gift' and were selected for review due to their similarity to a recent case of finding 3kg of drugs in cereal packages. During the physical inspection of the first 2 packages by the competent officer of the Customs and Excise Department, seven packages of cereals were found among various personal items, from which a strange odour was emitted."
It is added that "upon opening the packages it was found to contain a total of 12 airtight packages with dry cannabis plant matter with a total weight of 7.3 kg. The third package contained packages of biscuits and tea and during the physical inspection it was found that the 6 packages of biscuits contained respectively 6 airtight packages with dry plant matter (cannabis) with a total weight of 2.6 kg.
The packages and their contents were confiscated by the Department of Customs and Excise and in the context of cooperation with the Police, they were handed over to the YKAN for further investigation of the cases. The investigation resulted in the arrest of 4 persons in Famagusta district and one person in Nicosia district, it added.
Those arrested had presented themselves for the collection of the packages at the respective post offices in their area.
