A Guyanese man who claims he was “unwittingly turned into a drug mule” when his suitcase was allegedly tampered with during a Caribbean Airlines (CAL) flight to the US, has sued CAL for alleged negligence.
The story was carried in the October 10 edition of the New York Post.
It involved an October 2018 incident concerning Guyanese-born Simeon Wilson who lives in Queens, New York.
CAL Communication Officer Dionne Ligoure told Guardian Media yesterday, “The matter is before the court.”
As a result she couldn’t provide further information.
The Post reported facts from Wilson’s lawsuit.
It was claimed that Wilson, a janitor, had gone to spend a vacation in his homeland celebrating his elderly father’s birthday and on returning home to the US had collected his bag from the luggage carousel at JFK airport, New York.
It has reported that Wilson at the time didn’t notice that someone had fastened a necktie around the handle of his bag but it’s alleged there was no necktie on the handle when Wilson had checked in with CAL at Guyana’s Cheddi Jagan airport for the trip back to the US.
The Post reported that when he returned to the US, he was pulled aside by US Customs and arrested when 2,000 grams of cocaine was found in two bags, Wilson’s lawsuit claimed he had “never touched, handled or sold or seen drugs in his life and didn’t put them in his suitcase.”
The report stated that 10 weeks later the prosecutors dropped the charges after determining Wilson’s bag had been tampered with “while in the sole custody of CAL”, he claimed in his court documents.
Wilson said his family had to bail him out of jail, his reputation in Guyana was ruined and he lost his job in the US.
