The Jamaican woman, who was arrested on Wednesday, April 13 by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in New York after she was allegedly found hiding cocaine in bags of coffee is from St Ann.
She has been identified as 26-year-old Sherese Lee Ann Drake, alias ‘Chelsea’, from Runaway Bay, St. Ann.
According to a release from the CBP last Friday, Drake arrived at the John F. Kennedy International Airport from Montego Bay on April 13, and presented herself for inspection.
During the examination of her suitcase, CBP officers removed a plastic coffee bag that contained a white powder.
Drake was escorted to a private search room where CBP officers probed two bags of coffee, all of which contained a white powder that tested positive for cocaine.
In total, approximately 3 pounds of cocaine was seized, with an estimated street value of more than US$50,000.or more than J$6 million.
CBP officers placed her under arrest and turned her over to the Port Authority Police Department.
Drake now faces state narcotics smuggling charges and will be prosecuted by the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
“This seizure is another example of our CBP officers being ever vigilant in protecting the United States from the distribution of illicit drugs,” said Robert Perez, director of CBP’s New York Field Operations, in the release.
North Coast Times understands that Drake is a past student of Westwood High School in Trelawny. She completed a skills training course in massage therapy and worked in a hotel for a few years.
Drake, who is the mother of two children, had also worked at a popular hotel on the north coast, a source close to Drake informed.
Drake was popular on the party scene in St Ann and often used her social media pages to promote a popular party in Priory, St Ann.
In the meantime, several Jamaicans have taken to social media to express their shock, disappointment and anger at Drake’s act. Many were of the view that, Jamaicans never learned from other cases of cocaine traffickers being caught. Others marveled at Drake’s beauty and questioned why a woman like her would involve herself with cocaine.
She has been taken to Rikers Island, the tough correctional facility in New York, where she is being held on $50,000 bail according to an article by Graham Rayman of New York Daily News.
