U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 353 pounds (160 kilos) of cocaine worth $4 million in luggage at the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sunday. The luggage was extremely heavy, and a private aircraft service operator alerted CBP officers before it was loaded onto a private aircraft bound for New York City.
The four male passengers who checked in the luggage and chartered the flight were arrested. A CBP canine officer alerted positive to the smell of narcotics, and a field test of what appeared to be sealed bricks came back positive for cocaine.
“CBP regularly works with our industry partners to discover nefarious actors attempting to exploit the air transportation system to conceal and move contraband from Puerto Rico into the U.S. mainland,” CBP San Juan Area Port Director Edwin Cruz said in a statement.
#CBP officers in San Juan recently arrested 4 men who intended to transport 353lbs of cocaine on a private aircraft bound for New York. READ: https://t.co/e83dcjBso3 pic.twitter.com/J0SJuNeJP4
— CBP (@CBP) November 20, 2018
Archive: Border Patrol Stops $2.5M Cocaine Load in the Rio Grande Valley