A Freeport woman was arrested on Thursday night, hours after she attempted to export a car hub and a picture frame containing cocaine from locations in Piarco and San Fernando.
The 26-year-old female, of Chickland, was detained by customs officers at TTPost in San Fernando on Thursday afternoon, before being handed over to officers of the Organised Crime Narcotics and Firearms Bureau (OCNFB).
The woman was arrested by OCNFB officers after customs officers utilised the Multi-Mode Threat Detector (MMTD) machine to confirm the picture frame contained narcotics.
The same woman was questioned by officers one day earlier, after attempting to export four picture frames containing 1.52 kilos of cocaine to an address in Nigeria.
The estimated street value of the drugs was $661,000.
The transaction on Wednesday took place at TTPost in Piarco, during which the woman dropped off the package to be posted.
Acting on information, customs officers stripped the picture frames and discovered the drugs.
On Thursday morning, the woman returned to TTPost in Piarco–this time attempting to export a single car hub containing 2.54 kilos of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $1 million.
Suspecting that something was amiss, customs officers called in fire service officials to drill the hub and discovered the narcotics sealed inside.
Hours later, the woman went to TTPost in San Fernando, to post a picture frame containing just over one kilo of cocaine with a value of $478,500.
After swabbing the woman's hands to confirm she had been in contact with illegal narcotics, she was detained and the picture frame seized.
All the packages were to be sent to the same address in Nigeria.
Intelligence officials said it was likely that the packages were to be placed on the same outgoing flight and would have been intercepted along the way.
About the MMTD
The MMTD is a portable handheld system capable of identifying narcotics or explosives simultaneously from a single sample.
It operates remotely and reports back via Wi-Fi Ethernet.
To test for narcotics or explosives, the equipment operator simply swabs the surface of a bag or vehicle and places the swab inside the explosives trace detection unit, which then analyzes the content for the presence of drugs or explosive residue.