Classic Inside Job (JFK baggage handlers smuggled $$ millions in drugs)

1010 WINS, NEW YORK ^ | Nov 25, 2003 3:12 pm | 1010Wins

[Calpernia]

A network of Kennedy Airport baggage handlers smuggled tens of millions of dollars worth of cocaine and marijuana into the United States by exploiting its access to airplanes and cargo, federal officials charged Tuesday.

Twenty-five people, nearly all current or former employees at Kennedy, were arrested and faced arraignment at federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoon on charges of conspiring to import controlled substances, prosecutors said.

The defendants helped import hundreds of kilograms worth of cocaine and hundreds of pounds worth of marijuana in a scheme that one top investigator called "a potential threat to homeland security."

"A network of corrupt airport employees, motivated by greed, might just as well have been collaborating with terrorists," the investigator, Michael J. Garcia, acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement.

Those charged in the case are current or former baggage handlers or other ground crew members for American Airlines and at least three other smaller companies operating at Kennedy.

Federal agents who began conducting surveillance on flights from Guyana 14 months ago watched suspects unload drugs stashed in luggage, cargo and, in one case, under ice in a plane's galley, officials said.

The drugs were then diverted around border inspection areas and handed off for distribution inside the U.S., officials said.

In September, federal agents seized a pallet loaded with three boxes of cocaine weighing about 185 kilos and worth about $23 million, officials said.

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[FITZ]

But why have customs if someone can import whatever they like? Isn't the cost of border inspections part of the cost of the WOD?

[FITZ]

to build more prisons where non violent people

I don't think we can look at the Mexican and Colombian drug cartels and smugglers and believe they are non-violent people. I don't think a pot-head who committed no other crime should be locked up in a hardcore prison but anyone who commits crimes while using drugs, or those working for the drug cartels should be locked up and kept locked up.

[eno_]

Border inspection is a very small part of the WoD. It is even a very small part of the part of the WoD under the heading of "interdiction." I don't know if it is even counted as part of the WoD because we inspect for things like certain agricultural products that can carry crop diseases. And that unpasteurized French cheese.

Furthermore, have you considered why people don't smuggle alcohol? The whole point is to make smuggling unprofitable. Then you have the time and resources to inspect for more critical things.

[NCC-1701]

"...Tune in any late night comedy show,and you'll hear at least 2 drug-related jokes, which receive thunderous applause.)..."

There is NOTHING funny about drugs. I know because my brother was into that crap and wound up doing ten years in federal prison. The unseen part of his drug dealing is seeing our mother lose a few years off her life, (she was 71 when he went in). That was the last thing she needed at that time of her life. Another part was having to cleanup the mess he left behind. He wasn't the best bookkeeper, so my another brother had to clean it up. Took him about 8 years to do that. He didn't need that task either.
Since our mother was in her 70's, and wanted to go see him, I had to drive her. I like to travel but NOT for that purpose. In one way or another, we all had to do something to help clean up his mess. We all had our lives to live while he cooled his heels for ten. There were other issues too numerous to mention here but suffice it to say our family were innocent victims of the drug trade. He's been out for almost two years and we all pray he dosen't screw up again. Next time, he'll be in for the rest of his life. We would hate for that to happen. Being a participant in the family tragedy, I have grown to hate drugs and the problems they cause for those who are smart enough to not get into that line of work. IT JUST DON'T PAY.

[bassmaner]

I see none of it...either illegal drugs or pornagraphy....as victimless.....there are always victims...always...

Tell me ...

If you're growing pot in your basement for personal consumption, and you have a neighbor with a vendetta against you who finds out about it and turns you into the police, and you get busted and sent to jail, tell me:

WHO DID YOU VICTIMIZE, TO DESERVE BEING SENT TO AN ANAL-RAPE CAMP?

[aShepard]

Oh man, this just has to be Bush's fault. Giving all those tax cuts to the rich, so now the baggage handlers want their cut of the action.

??What did Bush know, and when did he know it??

[Centurion2000]

and stop believing the "all muslims are evil"

They seem to be proving that fact by themselves just fine.

Go read the Koran, you'll stop believing the islam is peace crap you want to push on us.

[warchild9]

I never said Islam = peace. My point was that bigotry signals a botmind, someone who's not capable of thinking, only feeling.

[philman_36]

Wow .. that's a lot of drugs
Now look again... Federal agents who began conducting surveillance on flights from Guyana 14 months ago watched suspects unload drugs stashed in luggage, cargo and, in one case, under ice in a plane's galley, officials said.
The "biggest portion" of the drugs were obviously sold! How much do you think was smuggled in accumulatively over that 14 month period?
A "big bust" gets news. The smugglers got too comfortable and went with a big shipment so they got popped.
For 14 months this "potential threat (not an actual threat) to homeland security" was allowed to go on.

Willing dupes and useful idiots lives on!

[tacticalogic]

Yeah, funny how the Drug War does not extend to insurance-paid happy pills.

As long as there's all this googling going on, try doing a search on RWJF (the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). To get a little more granular, try RWJF + PDFA and RWJF + DARE. Then try RWJF + "Hillary Clinton".

[Maria S]

If you're using "and its affects on Great Britain and the Soviet Union.)" in your Dissertation, better change 'affects' to 'effects'.

[robertpaulsen]

"It is a little hard to see how drug use could get much more widespread than it is now in this country"

In 1979, drug use was three times what it is today.

What has brought it down is a message and an attitude. That can make it rise again.

You start talking about legalization and people, especially teens, will get the message that drugs are OK (they're legal, how bad can they be?) and we'll be back to 1979 in a heartbeat.

[robertpaulsen]

"Admitting that some drugs should be legal ... maybe even some opiates"

What a crock!

The baggage handlers at Kennedy Airport will smuggle any drug you "maybe" don't legalize. That ever occur to you?

If "addiction is not a criminal behaviour, commerce is not a criminal behavior", then why do you advocate maintaining the criminality of certain drugs?

Question: The friends and family you lost to the evils of drugs -- would it have been any different if drugs were legal? Would they be alive today? Yeah, didn't think so.

[archy]

How about good Italian catholic mafia types?

That was certainly the case in the 1970s and '80s, probably the '90s as well. And after being institutionalized for so long, it becomes a sort of entitlement, a cash cow habit that's awfully hard for the boys to break.

As well as a source of strength and protection via legal and illegal campaign contributions....

-archy-/-

[robertpaulsen]

"If you're growing pot in your basement for personal consumption"

Right. About 6 people in the U.S. fit this description.

And you act as though it applies to the majority of pot smokers.

[Natural Law]

The most disconcerting thing about this is failure of the TSA. I seriously doubt this is an isolated incident. I'll bet the statistics of luggage theft have not dropped either. If they can't keep Drug Dealers & Thieves out of the baggage how can they keep Terrorists out?

[tacticalogic]

Right. About 6 people in the U.S. fit this description.

Actually, it's about 60 million.

[robertpaulsen]

Geez, are you sure it isn't 600 million?

[tacticalogic]

Every bit as sure as you are that it's 6.