A 37-year-old mother and her 19-year-old daughter have been apprehended by a team from the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU) at the airport on this Saturday morning, October 3, at La Tour Koenig, Pointe aux Sables. They were about to receive the delivery of a package containing a pair of sports shoes in which 380 grams of cannabis were hidden, whose market value is estimated approximately to Rs 380 000. Tania Tea Louise, a 19 year old painter and her mother, Tristelle Marie-Josée Christina Racoute-Louise, a 37 year old surface technician in a casino have been arrested and placed in police custody.
The parcel from Reunion Island arrived in Mauritius on the morning of Friday, October 1, on Air Austral flight UU 108 via an express courier company and was addressed to Tania Tea Louise, at the NHDC apartments at La Tour Koenig, Pointe aux Sables. While examining the package, the officers of the Customs Anti Narcotics Section (CANS) of the Mauritius Revenue Authority and those of ADSU were suspicious of certain abnormalities. The parcel was scanned to confirm their suspicions.
Thus, on Saturday, October 3, around 8 am, a controlled delivery operation was set up. The ADSU team went to the residence of Tania Tea Louise where she and her mother Tristelle Marie-Josée Christina Racoute-Louise acknowledged receipt of the package and at this precise moment, the delivery men declared their identity and proceeded to the arrest of the mother-daughter duo.
The package was franked in Reunion Island on Monday, September 27. Everything indicates that the name of the sender and his address are fictitious. ADSU has alerted the gendarmerie of Reunion of this seizure.
Mother and daughter have been brought before the court of Bambous this Monday, October 4 under a provisional charge of drug trafficking. As the police objected to their release on bail, they have been taken back to the police cell.
