NEW YORK: Drug smugglers trying to transport their illicit goods into the nation’s largest consumer market through John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty International Airports employ an eclectic array of hiding places, from sneakers packed in luggage to underwear worn by couriers.
Here’s a sampling, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, which is charged with catching smugglers at the airports before turning them over to prosecutors in New York or New Jersey.
- The soles of running shoes was where a Guyanese man hid two pounds of cocaine, packed in his luggage, found after he arrived at JFK on April 7, 2015, authorities say. Even the customs agency has a sense of humor about the places smugglers stash their drugs, noting that the man was “stopped in his tracks,” before the four pair of running shoes could hit the streets, where the coke would have been worth $30,000.
- A girdle and undergarments worn by a Guyanese woman were allegedly found to contain four pounds of cocaine at JFK, on April 7, 2015, when she was taken to a private room for a body search after officers thought she looked especially nervous while being processed.
- Cookies were allegedly used to smuggle packets containing a total of three pounds of cocaine, seized from a Guatemalan man who flew into Newark on June 5, 2014. The round sweets were formed into a shell in which the drug was concealed, authorities said.
- Packets labelled as hair care products turned out to contain eight pounds of a brown gel-like solution made up largely of heroin, allegedly found in the luggage of a woman who arrived at JFK from Bogota, Colombia, on July 25, 2012.
- Leather seat cushions packed in the luggage of a Guatamalan man allegedly turned out to contain two pounds of heroin, when customs officers ripped them open at JFK on March 26, 2015.
- Rum bottles presented by a man who had arrived at JFK from Guyana on Nov. 17, 2014, contained what customs officials said was $310,000 worth of cocaine in a liquid solution, authorities said.
- Picture frames covered in traditional colorful textiles of Peru were found to contain a pound of cocaine, after customs officers reportedly found the frames in the luggage and carry-on bags of a Peruvian man who had just flown from Lima to Newark on March 21, 2015.
