U.S. Customs And Border Protection
There is a new cocaine smuggling trend and its success has been minimal.
After two men were bagged last month strapping a total of 15 pounds of cocaine to their legs on flights from the Dominican Republic to New York’s JFK Airport, two geniuses decided to test their luck with a lot more cocaine. As you may expect, they failed. And it will cost them both a long time in the clink.
Ariel Garcia, 22, and Elvin Montila-Sosa, 41, were traveling separately from the Dominican Republic when they landed on April 19, according to the NY Daily News.
Federal Customs officers patted them down and noticed something was a bit bulgy, so they took the men to a private room and found packaged taped to their bodies.
Garcia, a U.S. citizen, allegedly had 11 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $180,000 taped to his legs, officials said. Montila-Sosa, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, was carrying 12 pounds of cocaine on his legs and back, worth about $200,000.
U.S. Customs arrested both Garcia and Montila-Sosa on federal drug smuggling charges.
It’s unclear how much prison time they’ll serve, but for a reference point, a Jet Blue flight attendant was bagged smuggling 60 pounds of cocaine (worth $3 million) in a suitcase through security at LAX last year. She is currently facing a minimum 10-year sentence, max life sentence.
[h/t Gothamist]