A ring of corrupt airline employees exploited weaknesses in security procedures to help a New York drug ring smuggle heroin and cocaine from the Dominican Republic via John F. Kennedy Airport, federal authorities charged.
At least 18 people have been charged so far in the plot, including seven employees at Delta Air Lines, one at American Airlines, and two others who worked at JFK.
Several were arrested on Tuesday in a roundup that followed a two-year probe by US customs agents.
Prosecutors said the group concealed drugs in luggage on jets traveling from the Dominican Republic, then retrieved the bags at JFK before they could be inspected by customs agents.
The suspects include cargo and baggage handlers, an employee of a global courier service and a "lookout" for the group who had access to JFK's control tower through her job with Aramark, a cleaning, maintenance and food service company.
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent said in a court filing that, in some cases, workers whose jobs gave them "virtually unfettered and unsupervised" access to arriving flights simply turned up, removed the drug-filled bags from the jet's cargo hold, and walked off with them while taking care to avoid security cameras.
The agency said it began investigating in 2005 after a suitcase containing cocaine and heroin was seized at JFK after arriving on a Delta flight. Agents built the case by tapping the phones of several suspects, including some who attracted attention when they turned up to unload bags on shifts when they were not scheduled to work.
Agents also intercepted the shipments of more than 100 pounds (45kg) of cocaine, 55 pounds (25kg) of heroin and 6.6 pounds (3kg) of the drug ecstasy.
A Delta spokeswoman, Chris Kelly, said the airline has been cooperating with the probe for several months.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
RSS