Tag:

Cocaine smuggling

Smithtown, NY
News
Smithtown American Airlines Mechanic Who Smuggled $250K Worth Of Cocaine On Flight Gets Prison Smithtown American Airlines Mechanic Who Smuggled $250K Worth Of Cocaine On Flight Gets Prison
Smithtown American Airlines Mechanic Who Smuggled $250K Worth Of Cocaine On Flight Gets Prison An airplane mechanic from New York will spend nearly a decade behind bars for smuggling over 25 pounds of cocaine on an American Airlines plane. Long Island resident Paul Belloisi, age 56, of Smithtown, was sentenced to nine years in prison in Brooklyn federal court on Friday, Sept. 6, for possessing and importing cocaine. Belloisi, a former mechanic for American Airlines, was arrested in February 2020 after US Customs and Border Protection discovered 10 bricks of cocaine in an electronics compartment beneath a plane arriving from Jamaica at Kennedy International Airport in Queens . The c…

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by Michael Mashburn
Lancaster, PA
News
Pounds Of Cocaine Seized In Pennsylvania Helps Convict Last Member Of Puerto Rican Drug Ring Pounds Of Cocaine Seized In Pennsylvania Helps Convict Last Member Of Puerto Rican Drug Ring
Pounds Of Cocaine Seized In Pennsylvania Helps Convict Last Member Of Puerto Rican Drug Ring The seventh and final member of a drug smuggling ring that ran from Puerto Rico to Pennsylvania — has been convicted, according to a release by the US Department of Justice on Nov. 16.  Moniqua Ramirez, 44, has been found guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, according to U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam. She was convicted at the end of a three-day jury trial before U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson on Wednesday, Nov. 15. Ramirez, along with six other Puerto Ricans conspired to smuggle kilograms of cocaine from Puerto Rico into Central Pennsylvania using the US Post…

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by Jillian Pikora
Newark, NJ
Police & Fire
Fugitive Seized At Newark Airport Gets Year In Prison For Each Of 5 Kilos Of Smuggled Coke Fugitive Seized At Newark Airport Gets Year In Prison For Each Of 5 Kilos Of Smuggled Coke
Fugitive Seized At Newark Airport Gets Year In Prison For Each Of 5 Kilos Of Smuggled Coke An international fugitive who spent more than a decade on the run before he was seized at Newark Airport was sentenced to five years in federal prison for having couriers smuggle more than five kilos of cocaine into the U.S. on a cruise ship. Dennis Edwards, a 38-year-old Guyanese citizen known as “Death,” had avoided capture after being indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy charges in 2012, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Authorities said he conspired to import cocaine from St. Maarten on a cruise ship. Edwards was seized by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Reading, PA
Police & Fire
'Operation Special Delivery': Berks Crew Smuggled $4M Of Cocaine Through The Mail, Police Say 'Operation Special Delivery': Berks Crew Smuggled $4M Of Cocaine Through The Mail, Police Say
'Operation Special Delivery': Berks Crew Smuggled $4M Of Cocaine Through The Mail, Police Say A dozen people face criminal charges in connection with an ongoing scheme to mail cocaine from Puerto Rico to Berks County, according to authorities.  During the course of "Operation Special Delivery," a task force of Berks detectives and federal agents seized roughly $4 million worth of cocaine from 19 packages sent through the US Postal Service, said county authorities in a release.  Eleven of the 12 suspects are currently in police custody, detectives said.  The investigation began last August when the Postal Inspector's Office found "kilogram quantities" of cocaine being regularly shi…

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by Mac Bullock
Springfield, MA
News
Custom-Built Furniture Was Massachusetts Man's Method Of Smuggling Crack: Feds Custom-Built Furniture Was Massachusetts Man's Method Of Smuggling Crack: Feds
Custom-Built Furniture Was Massachusetts Man's Method Of Smuggling Crack: Feds A Springfield man could face life in prison for his role in a drug trafficking scheme that involved furniture to smuggle four tons of cocaine across international lines, federal officials said. Abel Montilla was convicted for his role in a drug trafficking organization that used custom-built furniture to ship cocaine from Puerto Rico to the United States between 2018 and 2021. The drugs were hidden in more than 70 pieces of cube-shaped coffee tables and other furniture, the US Attorney's Office of Southern New York said on Tuesday, Dec. 20. The organization also lied about the cocaine-pack…

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by David Cifarelli
Hackensack, NJ
News
Heavy Luggage: Ringleader Gets 10 Years For Smuggling 330 Pounds Of Coke Into Teterboro Airport Heavy Luggage: Ringleader Gets 10 Years For Smuggling 330 Pounds Of Coke Into Teterboro Airport
Heavy Luggage: Ringleader Gets 10 Years For Smuggling 330 Pounds Of Coke Into Teterboro Airport A Puerto Rican resident who coordinated a private shipment of more than 300 pounds of cocaine into Teterboro Airport is headed to federal prison for a mandatory 10 years. Mariano Enrique Arroyo Perez – also known as “Humilde” – took a deal from the government rather than risk a trial. He’ll have to serve out the entire plea-bargained term because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. The scheme involved smuggling more than a quarter-ton of cocaine into the United States on private planes flying into the small local airport in Bergen County from 2017 through July 2019, U.S. Attorne…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Newark, NJ
News
Drug Mule Caught With 15½ Pounds Of Coke Wrapped In Chocolate At Newark Airport Gets 30 Months Drug Mule Caught With 15½ Pounds Of Coke Wrapped In Chocolate At Newark Airport Gets 30 Months
Drug Mule Caught With 15½ Pounds Of Coke Wrapped In Chocolate At Newark Airport Gets 30 Months UPDATE: A Peruvian woman was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for trying to smuggle nearly 15½ pounds of cocaine hidden in chocolate candy through Newark Airport. Yolanda Fonseca Melgarejo, 60, a legal permanent resident of the United States and a citizen of Peru, was nabbed after flying in from Lima in March 2019. She had seven kilos of coke "concealed within wrapped chocolate candy in her luggage," Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Malgarejo took a deal from the government rather than risk trial, pleading guilty this past June to a single count of importing controlled s…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Newark, NJ
News
Jamaican Man, Peruvian Woman Admit Smuggling 22 Pounds Of Cocaine Into Newark Airport Jamaican Man, Peruvian Woman Admit Smuggling 22 Pounds Of Cocaine Into Newark Airport
Jamaican Man, Peruvian Woman Admit Smuggling 22 Pounds Of Cocaine Into Newark Airport Two people in two days this week admitted smuggling more than 22 pounds of cocaine combined into Newark Airport. Perez Omar Gibbs, 38, of Jamaica told a federal judge in Newark via videoconference that he hid more than six pounds of coke in two bags of coffee and four picture frames aboard a flight from Montego Bay, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. In an unrelated case, Honig said, Yolanda Fonseca Melgarejo, 59, a legal permanent resident of the United States and a citizen of Peru, told another judge in Newark that she concealed more than 15 pounds in chocolate candy on a flight …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Newark, NJ
Police & Fire
Man Nabbed At Newark Airport With Cocaine Sewn Into His Clothes Sentenced Man Nabbed At Newark Airport With Cocaine Sewn Into His Clothes Sentenced
Man Nabbed At Newark Airport With Cocaine Sewn Into His Clothes Sentenced A citizen of the Dominican Republic was sentenced Thursday to a year and a day in prison for attempting to smuggle three kilos of cocaine into the United States.  Jose Manuel Jiminez Jiminez, 47, was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport in February after flying in from Santo Domingo. During a pat-down screening, officers discovered the narcotics sewn into the vest he was wearing.  Jiminez Jiminez, who previously pleaded guilty to illegally importing more than 500 grams of cocaine, will be subject to deportation when he's released.  

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by Paul Milo
Fort Lee, NJ
Police & Fire
Port Authority K9 Detects Compartment That Concealed 154 Pounds Of Coke In Fruit Trailer Port Authority K9 Detects Compartment That Concealed 154 Pounds Of Coke In Fruit Trailer
Port Authority K9 Detects Compartment That Concealed 154 Pounds Of Coke In Fruit Trailer Heroes come in all shapes and sizes -- and species: A Port Authority Police K9 sniffed out a compartment used to smuggle more than $10 million in cocaine into the Bronx in a trailer filled with rotting fruit, prosecutors said. Balu and his Port Authority police officer partner are assigned with the DEA, the NYPD and New York State Police to a task force that pursues international drug smugglers in the New York metropolitan area. During one of the area's largest cocaine seizures in years, Balu's nose led task force members to a hidden compartment in the top of a refrigerated trailer that aut…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Fairfield, CT
News
Puerto Rico To CT Cocaine Trafficking Ring Probe Nets Seven Indictments Puerto Rico To CT Cocaine Trafficking Ring Probe Nets Seven Indictments
Puerto Rico To CT Cocaine Trafficking Ring Probe Nets Seven Indictments Seven people were indicted on Thursday, April 19 on charges related to alleged smuggling of cocaine via the mail from Puerto Rico to Connecticut, according to U.S. Attorney John H. Durham. Charged in the indictment were: Erick Suarez, 29, of New Britain; Jerry "Bebo" Rodriguez, 28, of Hartford; Luis Gonzalez-Ofarril, 23, of New Britain; Luis Torres, 35, of New Britain; and Gregory Torres, 39, of Hartford. Two additional suspects from Puerto Rico were indicted. As alleged in court documents and statements made in court, since December 2017, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Har…

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by Jon Craig