MADRID: Two alleged Colombian drug traffickers were busted in their native country last night for allegedly smuggling narcotics to New York aboard the famed Spanish navy ship the “Juan Sebastian de Elcano,” authorities said.
“A tourist attraction wherever it anchors, the ship served as the perfect cover for traffickers as it hopscotched across the Atlantic Ocean and back carrying it’s illicit cargo,” said Bridget G Brennan of the Office of the Special Narcotics Office.
Jorge Luis Hoayeck, 51, and Jorge Alberto Siado-Alvarez, 52, allegedly ran a major international drug operation from their base in Cartegna supplying heroin and cocaine to New York City dealers, according to the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.
The kingpins arranged for four kilograms of cocaine and four kilograms of heroin to be transported by officers in training aboard the Royal Spanish Navy ship.
The celebrated 371-foot long schooner built in 1927 was on six-month voyage that originated in Spain with stops in France, Italy and Morocco before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for stops in Colombia, the Dominican Republic and New York City.
A wiretap investigation revealed that Hoayeck and Siado-Alvarez agreed to pay two sailors $32,000 to hide the narcotics aboard the vessel and deliver the goods to dealers in New York, officials said.
When the “Juan Sebastian de Elcano” arrived in the Port of New York, the ship docked near the USS. Intrepid on Manhattan’s West Side, authorities said.
The Spanish cadets met with local traffickers on May 14, 2014 and accompanied them to a residence in the Bronx to deliver the narcotics.
The aspiring naval officers returned to their ship and continued their journey stopping in Ireland, Norway and Germany before heading back to Spain where local authorities descended on the ship and seized 127 kilograms of cocaine in a storeroom for the ship’s reserve sails.
DEA agents previously busted seven New York-based members of the trafficking group for their involvement in accepting and transporting the Spanish narcotics delivery, officials said.
Hoayeck and Siado-Alvarez, who are not charged for the massive narcotics haul in Spain, were indicted on charges of operating as major traffickers, conspiracy, criminal sale and possession.
They’re expected to be extradited to New York.
