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Bag Check: Are There Smuggled Drugs Stashed In Your Luggage?
By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Nov 21, 2011
Modified Nov 21, 2011
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By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Nov 21, 2011
Modified Nov 21, 2011
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Drug traffickers, apparently tired of storing their stash in hangers, saris and sneakers, have found a new place to hide the goods: your luggage. So now you can pay a "checked baggage fee" AND bail when you're busted for being a drug mule!
According the Post, cocaine kingpins and rogue handlers are using the checked baggage on international flights to transport drugs and smuggle them past Customs. The way it works is this: traffickers pay corrupt airport employees in other countries to hide two or three kilos of coke in a specially marked bag that handlers at JFK can recognize, who then remove the drugs before the bags make it to Customs. The only problem is that sometimes the JFK team misses the bag, therefore turning innocent passengers into unwitting mules.
Case in point: Queens resident Roger Levans was faced with 40 years of prison when traffickers planted several bricks in his bag on a flight home from Guyana. His charges were later dropped, though Levans is now suing Delta airlines. Even China—China!—is warning its travelers on how to avoid becoming unwitting drug mules, following a string of arrests. And who could possibly forget the 1999 Claire Danes-Kate Beckinsale bomb classic Brokedown Palace, in which the two girls are busted for unknowingly smuggling drugs in Thailand?
“Obviously, [the passengers are] going to be detained, they’re going to be questioned, they’re going to be scrutinized—there’s going to be a lot of investigation,” said Martin Ficke, a former special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New York office. So if you are embarking upon a hellish trip home for the holidays this year, protect yourself by only packing what you can carry in a hobo sack.
Tagged
airport
cocaine
drugs
jfk airport
luggage
smuggle
trafficking
travel
Jamie Feldmar
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