WHAT HEELS: American Airlines Employees Indicted For Drug Smuggling Operation
Nine ground crew employees working for American Airlines at the San Juan international airport were amongst 23 people indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico for operating a smuggling ring that shipped more than 9,000 kilograms of cocaine in suitcases that were loaded onto planes flying between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland, reports The Wall Street Journal:
The DEA discovered the alleged operation in March, after a neighbor noticed American Airlines shipping containers at a house in a residential area. The neighbor called local police, who found cocaine inside the containers, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
An American worker in Miami who, according to the indictment, coordinated the movement of suitcases onto conveyor belts in what were supposed to be secure airport areas, was among those arrested.
The alleged ringleader, a former American cargo employee, surrendered at a federal courthouse in San Juan Tuesday afternoon.
"The use of commercial aircraft to smuggle narcotics in and out of Puerto Rico...creates a serious threat to our national security," said Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez, U.S. attorney for Puerto Rico. …
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, is an attractive drug route because commercial flights to the U.S. aren't routinely subject to inspection, unlike flights from foreign countries.
This is not the first time American Airlines employees have freelanced as drug traffickers for Colombian drug cartels. Similar arrests were made in 1999 and 2004. Tim Wagner, a spokesman for the airline, insists that American is not the ACORN of airlines: "These events are really, really rare."
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