MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican prosecutors said Friday that police detained an employee of the Mexico City airport who allegedly tried to smuggle 569 pounds (258 kilograms) of cocaine out of the terminal.
Federal prosecutors say ground-operations employee was driving an official pickup truck on the apron of the airport’s baggage area.
The man tried to drive out of an area where baggage was offloaded from flights originating in Central and South America.
Video monitoring alerted airport officials, and federal police stopped the man Wednesday with five suitcases containing cocaine.
Prosecutors said the bags had no identifying tags.
The man was arrested and taken to a federal prison, pending possible charges. Federal security commissioner Renato Sales said he was apparently part of a gang operating at the airport.
“This is not an isolated case, it is indeed an organization that we are investigating, one airline in particular,” Sales told local media.
In September, police at the airport seized a ton of so-called “black cocaine” in a freight area.
Federal police made the bust after learning the drug shipment was arriving from Bogota, Colombia.
Police found 40 sacks, each weighing 55 pounds (25 kilograms). The sacks were labeled zinc oxide, but tests showed it was cocaine and cocaine base mixed with another, unidentified substance.
Authorities in Colombia said the technique is used to disguise cocaine as printer ink.
Yahoo News
11.8kgs of Cocaine found on an American Airlines 757
TULSA, Okla. (Reuters) – Maintenance workers with American Airlines have discovered more than 26 pounds (11.8 kg) of cocaine in a Boeing 757 undergoing routine maintenance at Tulsa International Airport, officials said on Wednesday.
The Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office was called to the airport’s maintenance center after airline employees found packages of a white, powdery substance in the plane on Tuesday night, the sheriff’s office said.
Agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration were called in and removed 10 square packages, it said.
The packages were positively identified as cocaine and are being held by the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.
American Airlines is working with the DEA and federal agencies, which are trying to determine how the cocaine made its way onto the aircraft, a spokesman said.
As of Wednesday morning, no arrests have been made in connection with the discovery.
Yahoo News
TULSA — The FBI is following the trail to who hid drugs in an American Airlines 757 in Tulsa for routine maintenance.
Officials with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Tulsa County Sheriffs Deputies removed 10 square packages of cocaine.
Sources tell Tulsa’s Channel 8 that a mechanic made the discovery, Tuesday afternoon while working on a the plane. Two packages were found in the avionics bay, which is located in the front of the plane underneath the flight deck. Once the discovery was made, the airplane mechanics were ordered off the plane and authorities were called to the scene.
The plane originated in Bogota, Colombia, then traveled to Miami, then did two trips from Boston to Dallas, and then traveled to Tulsa for routine maintenance.
The DEA and the FBI are investigating. Tulsa’s Channel 8 is seeking comment from American Airlines, the DEA, and the FBI.
ABC 8 Tulsa
Pilot arrested with 22 pounds of Cocaine in Peru
An American pilot has been caught with nearly 22 pounds of cocaine in his bags — and he says the drugs aren’t his.
Kenneth Parrock was arrested in Peru at Jorge Chavez airport, and though he did admit that the two searched bags were his, he denies that the cocaine found in one of them belongs to him.
Parrock was on a layover in Peru; and according to some international reports, he was about to pilot a TAM flight to Asia. He is being held by Peruvian authorities who are investigating whether he’s working with Asian drug smugglers.
Parrock isn’t the first American pilot to be busted for coke in recent times. In May 2014, Stanley Rafael Hill was charged with felony possession of cocaine. His stash wasn’t discovered in his luggage, though — it was in his body. One of the 62 tiny bags he swallowed burst, forcing him to head to a hospital and turn himself in.
The six aluminum bags stuffed in Parrock’s suitcase at least seems less painful.
Yahoo Travel