NEW YORK: “Always a Winner” reads the label on what may be the most popular drug-smuggling product in Guyana — Champion powdered baking goods.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agents nabbed yet another passenger at John F. Kennedy Intl. Airport, this time with 22 pounds of cocaine disguised as baking powder.
Security officers stopped Ms. Alizah Zaneshia Henry, a U.S. citizen, as she tried to pass through security in New York after traveling from Guyana via Port of Spain, Trinidad. A large stockpile of Champion baking powder stuffed under the clothes in her suitcase tested positive for cocaine, according to the CBP.
It’s not the first time Champion has appeared in arrest photos — one man was arrested for trying to smuggle 18 pounds of the drug in powdered custard bags, another woman 13 pounds.
“Cocaine is a dangerous narcotic, and CBP does its part in keeping these drugs off the streets.” said Robert E. Perez, Director of CBP’s New York Field Operations. “Our officers are determined to protect the American people from these illicit substances.”
The “baking powder” was turned over to Homeland Security, and Henry now faces federal smuggling charges.
She will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the U.S. Eastern District Court of New York.
