By The newspaper
09 May 2024, 09:32 AM EDT
Four flight attendants have been charged with smuggling $8 million worth of drug money on flights from New York to the Dominican Republic.
Federal prosecutors say the four New York-based flight attendants used their high positions to send millions of dollars in drug money to the Dominican Republic while they were working.
Delta Airlines said yesterday that it had suspended two employees pending an internal review and that it “has fully cooperated with authorities in this investigation and will continue to do so.” It is not clear where the other two suspects work, he noted. ABCNews.
“This investigation has exposed critical vulnerabilities in the airline security industry and illuminated the methods drug traffickers are using,” said an unnamed federal official.
The federal indictment alleges that flight crew members smuggled a total of $8 million through so-called “crew member security lanes” at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). allowing them to bypass TSA security.
The complaint calls it “an international narcotics trafficking and money laundering operation involved in the trafficking of fentanyl by using flight attendants from major airlines to smuggle large amounts of cash.”
Investigators say one member of the ring recruited the flight attendants and then, when he was arrested, turned on them and eventually trapped them while the feds watched.
All four have been charged with felonies and could face up to a decade in federal prison. Their names were not revealed. All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
In May of last year Paul Belloisi was found guilty of trafficking cocaine from Jamaica to New York taking advantage of his status as an American Airlines mechanic who worked at JFK airport.
In April 2023, Eulalio Gómez Zúñiga, a US citizen, was arrested after landing at New York’s JFK airport from Mexico on suspicion of bringing a stash of fentanyl valued at $60,000.
At the end of 2022, Emelinda Paulino De Rivas was detained at JFK airport on suspicion of trafficking cocaine in her wheelchair, upon landing from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.