By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

A NASSAU Airport Development Company employee is in police custody after an alleged attempt to smuggle 15 kilos of cocaine out of the country on an international flight.

The 25-year-old Winton Meadows man was arrested at the Lynden Pindling International Airport around 4.15pm on Wednesday.

Acting on information provided by US Customs and Border Protection officials, officers from the Airport Police Station conducted a search of specific items of checked luggage and found 15 packages containing a substance suspected to be cocaine, with a combined weight of 40 pounds.

Sources close to the investigation say the man was on a Bahamasair flight on his way to Ft Lauderdale, Florida, when he was apprehended. The drugs have an estimated street value of $240,000. NAD officials declined comment on the drug find and arrest. Police say they are actively investigating the matter.  In other crime news, police removed a high powered weapon off the streets of New Providence.

Police say officers of the Mobile Division, acting on information, conducted a search of some bushes on Sears Hill Road around 4.15pm Wednesday, where they uncovered the weapon. To date, police have removed 301 firearms with 4,413 rounds of ammunition from the streets of the Bahamas this year.

Eight drivers were cited on Wednesday by officers of the Traffic Division during operation “Deadly Catch” on Coral Harbour Road. The operation was held between 8.45am and 10.30am. In all, 72 drivers were issued tickets for speeding and fined $100 each.

Seven persons were cited for driving without their seat belt and fined $100 and one driver was given a ticket for failing to stop when requested to do so by a police officer.  Police have also officially identified the country’s latest murder victim.  Ricardo Rolle, of Curtis, Exuma, was “chopped” to death after getting into an argument with a male relative.
Police are questioning a 22-year-old male in connection with this homicide.  He became the country’s 69th murder victim.  Investigations continue.