Authorities arrested an alleged drug smuggler who was posing as a uniformed Delta Airlines pilot at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City last week.
Mario Hudson arrived on a flight from Kingston, Jamaica, and told security personnel at JFK he was a Delta pilot dead-heading to New York City, industry slang for using a flight to get to work. Hudson was wearing fake Delta Airlines crew-member tags and falsified identification, immediately raising suspicions, reports NBC New York.
Agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection also grew suspicious of Hudson’s carry on bag, which had bulkier sides than normal. Officials uncovered five pounds of cocaine upon searching his bag, which carries an estimated street value of $85,000. Officials at JFK turned Hudson over to the custody of investigators from the Department of Homeland Security.
The incident is the latest in a series of recent narcotics busts by security officials at JFK Airport. Police arrested two men attempting to use a dog to smuggle more than $1 million worth of heroin through the airport March 24.
Samuel Seabrooks and Carlos Betancourt-Morales traveled separately to the airport after meeting up at an IHOP to pick up a mixed-breed Shepherd and the dog’s crate, shipped to JFK Airport from Puerto Rico. Betancourt-Morales signed for the dog and crate at American Airlines Priority Parcel Services and attempted to leave before security apprehended him.
Officers uncovered 10 bricks of heroin in a false bottom built into the base of the crate weighing roughly 22 pounds.
A drug smuggler flying into New York City from the Dominican Republic was apprehended by security March 4 in possession of cocaine. Juan Carlos Galan Luperon was attempting to get through security when agents noticed he was “busting out of his pants.” Officers searched Luperon and found roughly 10 pounds of cocaine taped to his legs.
In another bizarre incident at JFK Airport, a man overdosed on a plane sitting on a taxiway March 22, forcing the flight to return to the gate. The man allegedly ingested both heroin and an unspecified anxiety medication, a toxic combination that likely sparked the near-fatal incident.
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