iStockphoto
United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrested two Delta Airlines ramp agents for attempting to smuggle over $3 million worth of ketamine through JFK Airport in New York.
The two Delta Airlines ramp agents, Leandro Alleyne and Fabian Innis, were caught, according to the New York Post, when they were seen taking backpacks and suitcases off a flight, putting them on a baggage transportation vehicle, and taking the bags to a deserted area of the tarmac.
At that time that they did this, neither of them had the authority to remove luggage from the plane which had just arrived from Copenhagen, Denmark, nor was the driver of the baggage transportation vehicle, Alleyne, assigned to use it at that time.
In fact, Homeland Security said Delta told officers that there was “no legitimate reason” for Alleyne and Innis to be doing any of those things.
According to court documents, Homeland Security officers busted the two Delta agents after they started opening the bags.
Inside the bags, Homeland Security officers discovered multiple clear plastic bags filled with, after field testing, what was determined to be the drug ketamine.
All total, the pair had attempted, and failed, to smuggle 134 pounds of ketamine worth more than $3 million.
“That is a very large amount of ketamine,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan told the New York Post. “If I were running that case, I’d be more interested in where it was going rather than where it was coming from, because that is what would have the greatest impact on our community.”
Innis reportedly confessed that “he has done this at least five to 10 times in the past.” He also allegedly admitted that he was paid “approximately $4,000 to $5,000 per flight.”
Alleyne was said to have told DHS officers “he knew the bags contained drugs based on conversations with Alleyne, but did not know the type of drug.”
Four of the suitcases bore luggage tags with the names of two different Flight 219 passengers, prosecutors said in Brooklyn Federal Court papers. The complaint did not specify if the passengers were part of the smuggling operation, but did say Alleyne and Innis were working with others.
“It appears that the backpacks were stowed away within the luggage. Somebody on the other side must have put the backpacks into the luggage after they went through customs,” a source told the New York Post. “It looks like an inside job.”