Police have busted a gang who used their jobs as baggage
handlers at New York’s John F Kennedy Airport to avoid inspection of mail
bags filled with cocaine and transported on commercial planes from South
America. Police officers officials announced that detectives arrested 13
people and seized USD$400,000, five vehicles, three guns and 110 pounds (50
kg) of cocaine in a series of raids. They were part of a drug trafficking
and distribution ring believed to have sold more than 1,300 pounds (600 kg)
of cocaine a year in New York with a street value of USD$75 million. Last
November, 23 mostly airport employees in the New York area were arrested on
charges of conspiracy to smuggle tens of millions of dollars of cocaine and
marijuana into the country on international cargo and passenger flights. Cocaine
was bought in Guyana in South America and sent to New York on commercial
airliners. The members of the gang who worked as baggage handlers
circumvented inspection of mail bags containing the cocaine. Profits from
the gang’s cocaine sales were returned to Guyana where other gang members
laundered the cash.