Posted on 11/25/2003 12:41:19 PM PST by 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.
This seems more like the leftovers from the Clinton Administration getting caught due to increased security at airports.
Now they have a MORAL leader in government, and are not getting protection from the top.
SORRY BOYS, NO MORE BACKDOOR DELIVERIES TO THE WHITE HOUSE!
So let's just increase the budget of the highly successful Drug War. Right? Or perhaps it is a mistake to put the pressure of tens of billions of dollars of contraband on the security system that should be keeping us safe from terrorism.
Have you considered that an airport compromised by contraband smuggling money is many times easier to compromise for other purposes?
Ya think? Gee, what would we do without experts to tell us this stuff.
A 10 kiloton Atomic Demolition Munition is about the size of a small trashcan, and weighs about 60 pounds- less than the weight/volume of 30 Kg of cocaine.
In fact, someone joked that you can smuggle any WMD you want to into ths country- just wrap it up and label it "Cocaine".
The smuggling of drugs through major airports has been going on for decades, and has almost always involved a mix of airline staff,airport workers, corrupt customs agents, cops,clergy,doctors, etc., etc.
This was true when we had Republican administrations, and when Democrats ran things.
Let's put things simply: As long as we, the American people crave drugs, someone from some part of the world will step up and supply them to us.
Some Freepers insist the solution is to legalize anything and everything. There have been days when I've thought they might be right.......and there have been days when I've seen how wrong the idea might be.
The real "War on Drugs" is being fought in our hearts and minds;and until we decide as individuals to accept what society decided a long time ago,the war will go on without clear loss or victory.
Maybe not everything, but eliminating the extremely lucrative black market in cocaine, heroin, and (especially) marijuana by legalizing would go a long way towards eliminating a major source of $$$ that goes to fund terrorism.
Well, what do you want? A multibillion dollar infrastructure of corrupt officials to facilitate contraband smuggling, or do you want a border you have a chance of controlling? As long as there is demand for cocaine, you can't have both.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.