Answer Addiction

Tag: drug smuggling

  • Airline Crew Allegedly Involved in $20 Million Drug-Trafficking Ring

    Airline Crew Allegedly Involved in $20 Million Drug-Trafficking Ring

    Police say the key players in the alleged drug ring used crew members to hide drugs on their bodies for flights to various Australian cities.

    At least one airline worker and seven other suspects were arrested this month in Australia on drug-trafficking charges after authorities said they smuggled in more than $15 million of heroin, meth and cocaine as part of an international drug syndicate. 

    In a series of raids over the course of 10 days, the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police collared key players in the alleged criminal ring, which had relied on crew members to hide the drugs on their bodies during flights destined for major Down Under cities like Melbourne and Sydney, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

    “This is a significant seizure but I think reality would say that it’s not the total amount of drugs that this team have brought into this country,” Assistant Commissioner Tess Walsh of the Victoria Police told the Australian outlet. 

    The final bust netted six kilograms of heroin, eight kilograms of meth and half a kilo of coke. Authorities also seized pricey cars, various drug paraphernalia and $100,000 in cash, according to news reports.

    It’s not clear how long the illicit dealings had been going on.

    “Intelligence would tell us that this crew has been operating for some years, I would say five plus,” Walsh said. “I don’t know whether or not it’s decades.”

    Based on a five-month investigation – dubbed Operation Sunrise – it appears the Vietnamese drug ring was based in Melbourne and made use of the small Malaysian airline for its seedy endeavors. 

    “Malindo Air stands ready to co-operate with all the relevant authorities be it in Australia or in Malaysia in this regard,” the company said in a statement. “As a responsible international air carrier, Malindo Air does not condone any act that is criminal in nature or misconduct by our personnel. All our flight and cabin crew are adequately trained & continuously appraised in all aspects of their conduct to comply to our stringent operating standards.”

    The implicated crew member has since been suspended pending termination, the company said, framing the entire thing as “an isolated incident.”

    Although Malindo only acknowledged one crew member’s involvement, CNN reported that two airline staffers were implicated.

    So far, four of the arrestees – all women – have been charged with importing controlled drugs, the network reported. Authorities did not immediately release their names. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • US, Canada Issue Travel Advisory For China After Controversial Drug Smuggling Case

    US, Canada Issue Travel Advisory For China After Controversial Drug Smuggling Case

    China has shot back by issuing a travel advisory warning of their own against Canada.

    Canada has warned its citizens to “exercise caution” while in or visiting China after a Chinese court sentenced a Canadian citizen to death for allegedly smuggling drugs.

    The travel advisory, issued on January 14, came on the heels of a similar warning to US citizens from the Department of State on January 3. Both actions have been linked in the media, though not by any of the three countries, to the arrest of a Chinese business executive in Canada on alleged fraud related to US sanctions on Iran, which was followed by the detainment of two high-profile Canadians in China amidst angry salvos and fraying diplomatic relations between all three countries.

    China has shot back by issuing a travel advisory warning of their own against Canada, advising Chinese citizens to “fully evaluate risks” of traveling to the north American country.

    Seemingly at the center of this flurry of activity is Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a 36-year-old Canadian who had been sentenced in 2016 to 15 years in prison for his alleged role in a methamphetamine smuggling operation.

    Schellenberg, who claimed that he was a tourist who had been framed by Chinese criminals, earned a retrial from an appeals court in December 2018. But in a one-day trial on January 14, 2019, the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court declared him a “principal culprit” in the smuggling scheme and imposed the death penalty. Schellenberg is expected to appeal the ruling.

    Canada’s Global Affairs noted that approximately 200 Canadians are currently being held in China for a “variety of alleged infractions.” That number has largely remained stable, according to the department, until the arrest of Sabrina Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on December 1.

    Meng, who is the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, was apprehended at the request of the United States for her alleged role in fraudulent activity related to violation of US sanctions against Iran.

    President Donald Trump has said that he would intervene in the case in the name of preserving US relations with China.

    Nine days after Meng’s arrest, former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor were arrested in China on allegations of “endangering national security,” which the South China Morning Post said was a term used by China to allege espionage. 

    As both The New York Times and Business Insider noted, the ruling has been viewed by foreign policy experts as an attempt to influence Canada’s decision to extradite Meng to the United States.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on January 14 that Schellenberg’s sentence was “of extreme concern to us as a government, as it should be to all our international friends and allies, that China has chosen to begin to arbitrarily apply [the] death penalty.”

    Hours after Schellenberg’s sentencing, Canada’s Global Affairs issued the travel warning – the second such advisory from a world power against China in less than a month.

    The United States warned citizens, and in particular, US-Chinese or Americans of Chinese heritage to be aware of “exit bans,” which Beijing can use to “compel US citizens to participate in government investigations, to lure individuals back to China from abroad and to aid Chinese authorities in resolving civil disputes in favor of Chinese parties.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ultralight Plane Drops Meth in California

    Ultralight Plane Drops Meth in California

    Officials say the meth that was dropped by the ultralight plane was worth more than $1.4 million.

    On Sunday, an ultralight plane slipped through the airspace between the US and Mexico with no lights on, dropping 60 bundles of methamphetamine and a get-away bike for the person who would pick up the drugs, into a farm field in Calexico, California, a town just over the border. 

    Despite the fact that the plane had no lights, border agents responded to where it was believed to have flown and found bundles full of a white powder that later tested positive for meth, according to The Desert Sun. Agents arrested two people in the area who they suspect were there to pick up the drugs from the plane. 

    Although the Calexico area is better known for drug tunnels that funnel narcotics into the US, Gloria Chavez, chief patrol agent in the area, said that planes also pose a risk when they are used by drug smugglers. 

    “Ultralight aircraft not only pose a threat to legitimate air traffic in the vicinity, but also to national security,” she said. “These aircraft are able to carry small payloads of dangerous cargo or dangerous people.”

    While 60 packages might have been a relatively small amount for drug smugglers, officials say the drugs dropped on Sunday are worth more than $1.4 million. 

    After making the drop, the plane flew back toward Mexico. The two people who were arrested were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which will be investigating the incident. 

    Calexico is a city of more than 38,000 on the border. Its sister city, Mexicali, sits just on the other side. The area is known for having tunnels used by cartels to smuggle narcotics into the United States. Earlier this year, a man who operated one of those tunnels was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

    According to NBC News San Diego, 48-year-old Manuel Gallegos-Jimenez operated the tunnel, which was about a quarter of a mile long and had lights, ventilation and an elevator that could fit 10 people. The tunnel started in Mexico and emerged in the front room of a home in Calexico. 

    The case was significant because law enforcement watched the construction of the tunnel unfold after traffickers purchased the house in 2015. The tunnel began operating in February of 2016 and was raided in April of that year.

    At that time, law enforcement found nearly 3,000 pounds of drugs at the home, including marijuana worth $1.2 million and cocaine worth $22 million.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Prison Chaplain Accused Of Taking Bribes To Smuggle Drugs To Inmates

    Prison Chaplain Accused Of Taking Bribes To Smuggle Drugs To Inmates

    Officials say they found a cache of contraband along with more than $5,000 in proceeds in the chaplain’s office.

    A prison chaplain was arrested for allegedly taking bribes to smuggle drugs and cell phones to inmates in a federal lock-up in New England, authorities said Friday. 

    Joseph Buenviaje was working at the Federal Correctional Institution in Berlin, New Hampshire, when officials say he started sneaking in contraband—including phones, tobacco, pot and Suboxone—to prisoners at the medium-security facility. 

    It’s not clear how many inmates were involved or whether any other workers or outside co-conspirators participated in the alleged scheme, and authorities did not outline in court documents when the smuggling is believed to have begun. But, during a search of the 53-year-old’s FCI Berlin office, officials said they found a cache of contraband along with more than $5,000 in proceeds.

    “Public employees are expected to act with integrity,” U.S. Attorney Scott Murray said in a statement. “We will always be alert to instances of criminal misconduct by federal employees. In order to ensure that the public has confidence in its public servants, federal employees who violate the public trust by breaking the law will be investigated and prosecuted.” 

    The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General took the lead in investigating the case, with help from the prison’s special investigative supervisor. 

    Earlier this year, a former prison employee at the same facility was sentenced to 15 months behind bars after she pleaded guilty to similar charges when she was caught accepting bribes to smuggle in phones, drugs and tobacco. 

    Feds were tipped off to the illicit operation and started monitoring Latoya Sebree’s communications to learn that she agreed to drop off a cell phone and tobacco in exchange for $2,000. The goods were shipped to the 37-year-old’s post office box, where she picked them up and drove them to her home. 

    When investigators showed up there with a warrant, Sebree handed over the $2,000 and cell phone. A search turned up Suboxone strips, a heat sealer and tobacco, according to a federal press release.

    Under questioning, Sebree admitted to sneaking in drugs, phones and other banned items over a several-week period. After pleading guilty in fall 2017, Sebree was sentenced in January. When she gets out of prison, she’ll be on supervised release for a year. 

    “The public deserves honest service from its civil servants,” acting U.S. Attorney John Farley said at the time. “This officer betrayed the public trust and undermined the safety and integrity of a federal prison facility by taking bribes to smuggle contraband into a prison. This type of conduct cannot be tolerated.”

    FCI Berlin holds just over 1,000 inmates between the main facility and the adjacent 88-man minimum-security camp.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Prison Guards Accused Of Smuggling Pot, Wire Cutters Into Lock-Up

    Prison Guards Accused Of Smuggling Pot, Wire Cutters Into Lock-Up

    Three female guards are all facing charges of attempting to furnish a prisoner with contraband.

    A trio of prison visitors could end up on the other side of the razor wire after they were arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle pot and cell phones into a pair of South Carolina lock-ups. 

    The three women arrested – Yolanda Whitaker, Yvanda Maria Hardy, and Carmen Bess – are all facing charges of attempting to furnish a prisoner with contraband, according to The State.

    The set of collars came just days after one prison guard was hit with a similar contraband charge and another accused of trying to smuggle oxycodone and MDMA into a Bennettsville facility, according to the Columbia newspaper.

    The first of the visitor arrests came on Nov. 2, nine months after officials say Whitaker tried sneaking 20 cell phones, a pair of wire cutters, 3.5 pounds of tobacco, lighters and rolling papers into the medium-security prison Kershaw Correctional Institution. It’s not clear who the intended recipient was, but officials said she allegedly stuffed the verboten goods into a speaker box she mailed into the facility. 

    A day after Whitaker’s arrest, Hardy was collared for trying to bring weed into McCormick Correctional Institution. In addition to the contraband charge, she was hit with one count of manufacturing or possession of drugs and one count of conspiracy to introduce drugs. 

    The day after that, Jenkins was arrested – at the same facility – after she allegedly tried smuggling liquid perfume and 142.9 grams of pot into the prison. She faced the same set of charges as Hardy, but it’s not immediately clear where she tried hiding the smuggled goods, which were wrapped in black electrical tape. 

    The earlier arrests of officers were both announced in October. In the first case, Williams Suggs was hit with a series of charges after he allegedly stuffed a package of 40 oxycodone in his groin, along with 65 MDMA pills, 19 cigarettes, and a lighter. In his car, prison police discovered 450 grams of synthetic marijuana, authorities said at the time.

    Then, on Oct. 29, prison officials announced the arrest of Ebonyisha Moinque Casby, a Lieber Correctional guard who allegedly smuggled contraband to an inmate she was having sex with. It’s not clear what forbidden goods she was hoping to sneak into the facility, but she was also dinged for bringing a gun into the prison.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Corrections Officer Accused Of Attempting To Bring Drugs Into Prison

    Corrections Officer Accused Of Attempting To Bring Drugs Into Prison

    Officers believe the man intended to distribute drugs found in his car to inmates in the jail.

    A Camden, New Jersey corrections officer has been suspended and charged after allegedly attempting to bring drugs into a correctional facility with the intention of selling them to inmates. 

    According to NJ.com, Christopher Bowie, 47, was caught with 21 Suboxone strips, four pills suspected to be oxycodone and six pills suspected to be Xanax. The substances were found on him as well as in his vehicle, according to court documents and a press release from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office. 

    Officers believe Bowie intended to distribute the drugs in the jail, though they did not provide a reason for their suspicion. 

    Bowie was immediately suspended, and the internal affairs unit and the prosecutor’s office are investigating. Bowie is facing charges of distributing a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and official misconduct, according to the prosecutor’s office. 

    New Jersey isn’t the only state confronting such actions from corrections officers. 

    On Monday (Nov. 5) an Arizona detention officer was arrested on suspicion of bringing heroin and other contraband into the Mohave County Adult Detention Facility, according to AZ Central. 

    A Facebook post from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office states that Ashley Desiree Aquino, 24, was questioned after law enforcement officials received a tip about the smuggling. Though the heroin was disposed of before Aquino was searched, other contraband was found and she admitted to bringing it into the facility. 

    “I hold all of my personnel accountable to their Oath of Office and will ensure that every measure is taken to fully prosecute Aquino for her actions,” said Sheriff Doug Schuster.

    In October, a former Georgia Department of Corrections officer pleaded guilty after being paid by an inmate to bring meth and marijuana into a prison in North Georgia, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

    Tiffany Cook, 34, was caught with more than 118 grams of methamphetamine and 150 grams of marijuana in July, after police received a tip that she had been smuggling such substances into the prison.

    In 2015, CNN reported in-depth on the issue, even speaking with one former guard who had fallen into smuggling for inmates. Gary Heyward worked at New York’s Rikers Island and was facing financial struggles when an inmate approached him about bringing cigarettes in. In speaking with CNN, Heyward reflected back on his prison guard training instructor.

    “He said, ‘Look to your left. Now look to your right. One of you is going to smuggle something in, some inmate is going to talk you into doing bad,’” Heyward told CNN. “I thought, ‘Oh, no, not me.’ But, you know, you never think it’s going to be you.”

    While in prison for two years, Heyward wrote a self-published memoir called Corruption Officer: From Jail Guard to Perpetrator Inside Rikers Island.

    “A lot of people will look at what’s going on in New York… and wonder why,” Heyward said. “People do what they do for different reasons. It’s just people being human, letting that thing that’s most weak in them get the better of them.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Unsuspecting Driver Turned Into "Blind Mule" For Drug Operation

    Unsuspecting Driver Turned Into "Blind Mule" For Drug Operation

    Deputies found 5 pounds of yet unidentified drugs stuffed into four packages secreted away underneath the man’s pickup truck.

    A Mexican worker crossing the border for his job flagged authorities after he discovered a cache of drugs stuck to the bottom of his truck.

    The unidentified driver—who lives in Tijuana but works in California—called the San Diego Sheriff’s Office Thursday morning after spotting something unusual apparently magnetized to his fender, according to ABC affiliate KGTV.

    When deputies showed up, they found 5 pounds of drugs stuffed into four packages secreted away underneath the pickup. 

    Afterward, the man’s neighbor told authorities he’d seen some men messing with the truck the night before. 

    “It’s our feeling that someone targeted this car because he could cross the border every day with the SENTRI pass and they were probably waiting to collect the narcotics later today,” Sgt. Tim Chantler told the TV station.

    The SENTRI pass allows for quicker border-crossing in separate commuter lanes, which could make SENTRI users more tempting targets. 

    The driver is not suspected in the botched drug-running operation because he alerted authorities to the packages. 

    “I would be checking my vehicle every day before I cross the border,” Chantler said, “because if you get caught at the border you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.”

    Police are awaiting test results before specifying what drug they found in the hidden packages. 

    The use of unsuspecting drivers as so-called “blind mules” has become more common in recent years—though until relatively recently, the government denied such things ever happened, according to the San Diego Tribune. 

    Until 2011, federal prosecutors routinely put DEA agents on stand to testify that “blind mules” were a fantasy made up by desperate defense lawyers hoping to spring their clients. 

    But that year, feds changed their tune after the FBI recorded a conversation between drug traffickers talking about a blind mule operation involving a fourth grade teacher. 

    Though that find forced feds to admit blind mules were real, it’s still not clear how common they are.

    “Over the course of my 31-and-a-half years, I say it is rare—I’m talking very rare—to find somebody who doesn’t have some knowledge or isn’t implicated in some way of having narcotics in their vehicle,” Joe Garcia of Homeland Security Investigations told the California paper in 2015. “It’s just uncommon.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • DEA's "Operation Goodfellas" Busts $19 Million Drug-Trafficking Ring

    DEA's "Operation Goodfellas" Busts $19 Million Drug-Trafficking Ring

    Federal prosecutors estimate that the group moved 11.5 kilos of crack, 436 kilos of coke, 54 kilos of heroin and more than 20 pounds of pot.

    More than 150 cops and federal agents teamed up to catch five Virginia men who allegedly masterminded a $19 million drug-trafficking plot. 

    Dubbed “Operation Goodfellas,” the sting netted four arrests last week, on top of two collars earlier this year at a Virginia hotel. One of the suspected drug slingers is still at large. 

    “For years, members of this organization have allegedly distributed significant quantities of narcotics throughout Hampton Roads,” the DEA’s Washington-based special agent in charge Scott W. Hoernke, said in a statement. “These indictments and arrests represent the dismantling of an allegedly prominent drug trafficking organization responsible for the smuggling, transportation and distribution of substantial quantities of narcotics from Los Angeles to Norfolk.”

    A “conservative estimate” by federal prosecutors suggested that the group had moved 11.5 kilos of crack, 436 kilos of cocaine, 54 kilos of heroin, an ounce of fentanyl and more than 20 pounds of pot. 

    The investigation kicked off in 2016, when undercover officers allegedly started buying cocaine, heroin and crack from 38-year-old Reginald Sam Beale, of Norfolk.

    The lawmen eventually started buying from Beale’s alleged co-conspirators, 36-year-old Maurice Antonio Barnes, 37-year-old Brandon Jaami Williams, 39-year-old Breon Lashawn Dixon and 34-year-old Johnell Deshawn Stepney. By the start of summer 2018, undercover officers had made nearly 30 controlled buys—and they’d also nailed down the source of the hard drugs. 

    Coming in from Los Angeles, the coke was being trucked to Virginia in 10- and 20-key hauls, then unloaded at a public storage facility in Virginia Beach, investigators said. In June, authorities arrested Williams with 13 kilograms of coke he was allegedly moving from one luxury Norfolk apartment to another. 

    The following month, feds arrested a pair of accused drug traffickers—one from Mexico and one from Los Angeles—after they flew to Virginia to try to get back some cocaine and pick up more than $500,000 in cash. 

    “These defendants allegedly distributed approximately $19 million of illegal narcotics in Hampton Roads,” said federal prosecutor G. Zachary Terwilliger. “The resources and collaborative efforts used to investigate this alleged drug trafficking organization is a prime example of the positive impact of federal, state, and local cooperation. My sincere thanks to our law enforcement partners for their outstanding efforts on this case.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Gang Accidentally Filmed Themselves Prepping Drone Drug Drop

    Gang Accidentally Filmed Themselves Prepping Drone Drug Drop

    During an attempt to smuggle drugs into prison, Scottish gang members managed to give police ample evidence to lock them up.

    The Scottish gang members who accidentally filmed themselves loading up drugs on a prison-bound drone are now bound for prison themselves. 

    Paul Reilly and Michael Martin were hit with nearly four years in the hoosegow following their ill-fated flight, according to The Scotsman.

    The duo was aiming to send the drugs over the walls and into Perth Prison, where Martin’s brother was expecting to reel in the pills and pot, according to the New York Post.

    But, while packing the narcotics onto the remote flyer, Martin accidentally turned on the drone’s camera and recorded more than 18 minutes of footage of him and his gang prepping the drug load.

    “If there was an award for the movie with the most inept director,” prosecutor Michael Sweeney said, “then it would have been won by the accused.”

    The footage showed both men—along with a third still-unidentified suspect—neatly packing Kinder Eggs full of drugs to send into the prison. Though the video even managed to show the gang’s house number, the criminal crew turned out to be better at filming than they were at flying, as the drone was eventually found crashed outside the prison yard.  

    When they recovered the wrecked flyer, authorities found a micro SD card full of the incriminating evidence. 

    “I don’t think they were aware the drone was actually filming at that time. I’m assuming he was looking at the drone to check if it was on, if it was functioning,” PC Nicholas Schembri said in court. “He was maybe making sure it was properly set-up. From the footage I viewed you could see clearly a tattoo on his neck.”

    The crew tried to exercise some element of caution, covering their hands with gloves to shield their fingerprints and DNA from the drone—but that turned out to be a futile precaution.

    That arrest came just months after authorities in the UK collared another set of gang members accused of making dozens of drone flights into prisons. In that case, it was an outdoor wildlife camera that tipped off police to the illicit flying operation and landed eight people behind bars. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Bananas Donated To Prison Contained $18M Worth of Cocaine

    Bananas Donated To Prison Contained $18M Worth of Cocaine

    The two unclaimed pallets of ripe bananas were filled with a lot more than potassium. 

    A Texas prison got much more than it bargained for, when a shipment of donated bananas bound for the penitentiary was found to contain nearly $18 million worth of cocaine. 

    “Sometimes, life gives you lemons. Sometimes, it gives you bananas. And sometimes, it gives you something you’d never expect!” the Texas Department of Criminal Justice wrote in a Facebook post.

    According to NPR, representatives from the Ports of America in Freeport, Texas contacted the department when two pallets’ worth of ripe bananas were left unclaimed at the port. The port agreed to donate the fruit to the Wayne Scott Unit prison farm in Brazoria County so they could be consumed before they went bad. 

    “Two sergeants of the Scott Unit arrived to pick them up, and discovered something not quite right,” the department wrote. 

    When the correctional officers were loading the 45 boxes of bananas, one noticed that a particular box felt different.

    “They snipped the straps, pulled free the box, and opened it up. Inside, under a bundle of bananas, he found another bundle! Inside that? What appeared to be a white powdery substance,” the department wrote. 

    That led to the whole shipment being searched and authorities found 540 packages of cocaine with a street value of $17.8 million. 

    “U.S. Customs arrived on the scene, and the substance tested positive for cocaine,” the department wrote. “Customs agents then searched each box on the two pallets, and they were all ripe and loaded. Once all 45 boxes had been emptied, what was left was quite the cache.”

    The department praised the attentiveness of the corrections officers who followed his gut.

    “With an instinct that something just wasn’t quite right, our guys uncovered 540 packages of cocaine within the shipment, with an estimated street value of $17,820,000!” the department wrote. 

    The Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are investigating the cocaine shipment. They have not released where the shipment came from or who the intended recipient was.

    Apparently, shipping cocaine in bananas is relatively common. In April, Spanish police seized nearly 9 tons of cocaine in a shipment of bananas from Colombia. Albanian, Romanian and German police have also uncovered cocaine in banana shipments shipped from Colombia, the largest producer of cocaine.

    View the original article at thefix.com