Suspect in major drugs case found dead in cell, foul play ruled out

A suspect in a major drug haul case was on Thursday found dead in his cell in Limassol, with the police all but ruling out foul play.

The man, a 61-year-old, was being detained in connection with the discovery of 132kg of cannabis at the port of Limassol earlier in the month.

He was the second suspect arrested following the apprehension of a 38-year-old.

Limassol CID officer Lefteris Kyriacou said the man was found dead in his holding cell at around 10.15am.

The findings of a post-mortem carried out on his body later in the day appear to rule out foul play, he added.

The Limassol police chief has ordered an investigation into the incident. The file will be forwarded to the attorney-general’s office.

The deceased had been arrested last week and a court had him remanded in custody for eight days.

He was suspected of involvement in a major drugs bust case.

On March 6, a container was unloaded at the port, and according to the manifest it contained 915 sacks of animal feed.

On March 8, the container was transported to a storage area at the port where, after obtaining a search warrant and in cooperation with customs, police had opened and searched it. They found 24 palettes with a number of sacks of animal feed. Hidden in two of the palettes were 132 airtight nylon packages with about 132 kilos of cannabis.

The cannabis was confiscated, and police arrested a 38-year-old man who has been convicted and previously jailed for a similar case.