Multi-Agency Investigation Continues To Roll Up Cocaine Ring

For the second time in a year, Federal agents have cracked a drug ring operating at Newark Liberty International, and they hint that more arrests are to come. The arrests are part of a wide-ranging probe that has taken over a year and involved scores of Federal and local law enforcement officers.

Three Continental Airlines baggage handlers -- Kemuel Hernandez, Jose Minaya, and Justriminio Abreu, are being held without bail and another, Jimmy Macias, got away and remains at large. Jose Lopez, a security guard, was also picked up by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is also held without bail. The defendants are charged with conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, in a quantity of over 5 kilograms. If convicted, they risk a ten year to life sentence.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger newspaper reported Wednesday that ICE agents charged that the five defendants had smuggled hundreds of pounds of cocaine. An ICE agent testified that the five stood guard over coke-packed suitcases containing as much as 37 pounds of the drug. The drugs originated in Central and South America and the Caribbean.

The probe involved agents from ICE, FBI, DEA, and the Port Authority police. (The little-known Port Authority cops keep turning up here; you may remember our story on how their helicopter led to the FBI's bust of the New Jersey laser prankster).

What's interesting from the aviation point of view, is that the entire investigation, which already bagged seven Newark workers and ten at Miami last year, came about as a result of a somewhat academic study of vulnerabilities in the airline system. Once they had identified potential weaknesses, the Feds checked to see if anyone was exploiting them.

Bingo.

ICE, FBI and other law enforcement TLA's (Three Letter Acronyms) hope the word gets out: if some baggage handler has been getting a $5,000 kiss to make sure a bag of "I dunno" gets through unmolested, he'd best keep his toothbrush handy, cause he's gonna be carrying it to new lodgings sooner or later.

Or to put it another way: don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

FMI: www.ice.gov