A port called Red Hook Terminal in Brooklyn, New York found itself in a fishy situation. Receiving a container filled with shrimp from Guyana, many weren't too alarmed with its contents. However, the shrimp seem to be stuffed with something other than food ingredients.
The shrimp were stuffed with 268 kilograms of cocaine, which were discovered by "drug-sniffing dogs" in a Queens warehouse, according to Food Beast. The substance has a street value of over $12 million.
The New York Daily News reports that agents took to remove the cocaine-stuffed shrimp discreetly. In fact, the feds tailed the container after clearing customs on June 15, as said by Ryan Varrone, a U.S. Homeland Security special agent.
The container was then delivered to the warehouse on Monday. Agents then were able to identify Heeralall Sukdeo "together with others [...] organizing and supervising the unloading" of the shipment, as stated by a complaint which was opened in Brooklyn Federal Court on Wednesday.
Heeralall Sukdeo is the owner of a Queens-based shipping company called Sukdeo Sons Fishing. Federal agents arrested the 59-year-old suspect, Sukdeo, deemed to be an affiliate the group behind "organizing and supervising the unloading" of the shipping container.
The man in question currently denies of any knowledge that the cocaine was stuffed inside the shrimp. "Sukdeo stated that he was present only in the vicinity of the truck containing the target shipment because he was curious about its contents," wrote Ryan Varrone in the same complaint.
An employee told the authorities that the shipment from Guyana was addressed to "Randolph Fraser," Sukdeo's alias.
Sukdeo is still in federal custody, but holds no bail. However, defense lawyer Andre Travieso cited that Heeralall Sukdeo had a clean rap sheet - stating that he was never arrested in the past.
"I'm pretty confident that when all the facts come out, this was just a huge mistake," Travieso told the publication while asserting that Sukdeo was not the person who ordered the drug-laden shrimp.
