Mahendrapaul Doodnauth, 45, of Seguin Court, Etobicoke, was arrested in Ontario on last Friday and has been charged with importing cocaine

Mahendrapaul Doodnauth, 45, of Seguin Court, Etobicoke, was arrested in Ontario on last Friday and has been charged with importing cocaine, conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. He appeared in court via video on Tuesday and was remanded. No details were available on Tuesday's court appearance.Officers are still investigating whether there is any local criminal involvement and have not ruled out more arrests. They said they don't know whether any of the drug was intended to be sold on Saint John streets.The ship, which authorities declined to name, has the capacity to crry 559 12-metre cargo containers and makes regular trips between Saint John and the Caribbean.In this case, the cocaine was packaged in 1,653 resealable plastic bags and packed inside cardboard partitions that had been split open. Cardboard partitions are commonly used in boxes of goods to keep glass bottles from knocking together and shattering.In this case, the cocaine-laden partitions were shielding bottles of green hot sauce; 77-79 per cent pure cocaine was found in 551 of 1,250 boxes of the sauce.On Tuesday morning, representatives from the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), Saint John Police Force and the RCMP held a press conference displaying all but two kilograms of the high-quality cocaine. The Durham Regional Police Service of Whitby, Ont., was also involved in the operation.

"This certainly highlights the risk that is present in the Port of Saint John for the importation of narcotics," said Don Collins, CBSA director of the southern N.B./P.E.I. district.

The ship was searched on Dec. 11 as a result of information gathered by undercover officers during the past three months as they worked to try to identify the source of cocaine that is on the streets in and around Toronto, said Jamie Bastarache, CBSA chief of enforcement and intelligence for the Atlantic region."The investigation alerted police to a criminal network distributing and selling on the streets," he said.CBSA detector dogs alerted officers and X-ray technology narrowed down the drug's location, Collins said. Police are "fairly confident" the cocaine was loaded in Guyana.This is the third drug seizure by the CBSA in the Atlantic region this year. Since January, CBSA investigations in the Atlantic region have yielded more than 622 kilograms of illegal drugs valued at more than $72 million.The CBSA searches about eight to 10 per cent of containers arriving at Saint john's port daily as a result of information received, Collins said.

"Our port is a small port and we are seen by Upper Canadians as being somewhat of a sleepy community," said Insp. Darrell Scribner of the Saint John police.

"It takes a big bite out of the cocaine available."

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said law-enforcement collaborations like the one that made the bust are "tried and true".