Mugshot of Vanessa Adams. By. THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT
ST. CROIX — A woman is facing felony drug charges after being nabbed at the airport, allegedly with marijuana and THC paste in her luggage.
Police at the Henry E. Rohlsen airport were alerted to a seizure at the Checkpoint B pre-clearance area on Thursday afternoon, around 5:30 p.m. Customs and Border Patrol officials told them that they had seen a suspicious item inside a piece of luggage while conducting XRay screening of inbound luggage.
The suitcase was placed back on the baggage belt, and CBP officers first accosted the man who was seen retrieving the bag. He told them that the suitcase belonged to Vanessa Adams, and so CBP located her and escorted her to a secondary screening area.
In her presence, officials opened the suitcase and searched it, finding a large zippered plastic bag containing plant material, as well as another slightly smaller zippered plastic bag containing suspected THC paste. Both the 464 grams of plant material and the 579 grams of paste were field tested and returned positive results for marijuana.
Under police questioning, Adams said that her daughter’s father had asked her to do him a favor, to which she agreed. The favor entailed traveling from St. Croix to Orlando to retrieve a package from a house there. The plane ticket was purchased by a friend of her child’s father. She flew to Orlando on April 24 and returned the following afternoon.
After relating her story to police, Adams was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute. Unable to meet her initial bail requirement of $7,500, she was remanded into custody to await her first court appearance.
Although scheduled for Friday morning, as of press time the court docket indicates a status of “awaiting hearing” for Adams's advice of rights appearance before Magistrate Yolan Brow Ross.
