J’can drug mules nabbed at NY airport

New York (CMC) — United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers have arrested a Jamaican national with about 70 pellets of cocaine in his stomach as he arrived at the John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport.

CBP said officers “had a hard time swallowing” Gyan Damian Morgan’s story after he arrived on a flight from Kingston, Jamaica on April 19.

CBP said that, during the course of inspection on Wednesday, officers noticed that Morgan, was “displaying numerous signs of nervousness.

“CBP officers escorted Mr Morgan to a private search room to continue the examination, where a personal search was conducted with negative results. During this follow up interview, CBP officers noted several inconsistencies with Mr Morgan’s story.

“Mr Morgan was transported to a medical facility near JFK, where he voluntarily admitted to ingesting approximately 70 pellets of narcotics. An x-ray was taken, and showed foreign bodies within his stomach cavity.”

CBP said Morgan was placed under arrest for “the importation of narcotics into the United States and was remanded to the medical facility until all the pellets of narcotics had passed out of his system”.

The total weight of cocaine seized was about two pounds “with an estimated street value of tens of thousands of dollars”.

CBP Director, Field Operations New York, Robert E Perez, said “this latest seizure demonstrates the vigilance of our CBP officers, and their excellence in detecting those who would swallow these illegal substances with the intention of delivering them into the United States”.

CBP said Morgan has been indicted on US federal narcotics smuggling charges and will be prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office in the US Eastern District Court of New York.

Only three days prior to Morgan’s arrest, another Jamaican man was arrested at the same airport for trying to smuggle $20,000 worth of cocaine in his underwear.

Pix11 reports that, Romario Lewis, from Jamaica, “exhibited numerous signs of nervousness” while trying to get through security at the airport on April 16. Customs and Border Protection officers pulled Lewis aside for a physical search, and allegedly uncovered two packages of white powder stuffed in his “groin area.”

He was arrested and turned over to Homeland Security Investigations and now faces federal narcotics smuggling charges, Pix11 said.