2 Charged in Drug-Smuggling Case Tied to Costa Rica

Two men have been charged in federal court in San Diego in connection with the seizure of 261 pounds of cocaine allegedly smuggled from Costa Rica.

Customs agents, along with members of a task force composed of federal agencies and officials from Southern California law enforcement agencies, arrested the two men last week.

Dirk Francis Jennings, 52, an unemployed U.S. citizen who had been living in Costa Rica, was arrested in San Diego. He was charged Friday with conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute, said Assistant U.S. Atty. John Kraemer.

Jennings is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility.

John Daniel Cornwell Jr., 42, a shipbuilder from Manhattan Beach, was arrested last week in Long Beach after agents found the cocaine, worth $2 million, in five duffel bags in his car. He was charged Tuesday with the same offense as Jennings. He will be brought to the San Diego correctional facility in a few days, Kraemer said.

In addition, a 27-foot fishing boat, which agents believe was used to smuggle the cocaine, was seized in Chula Vista on July 27, said customs spokesman John Miller.

The boat had a registration number but no name. Customs agents have not determined who owns it, Miller said.

Miller said the arrests are important because it might signal a change in the route that drug smugglers are using.

“The unique thing was the distance it came from Costa Rica by water,” Miller said. “Normally it comes through Mexico. Maybe it’s an indication that drug smugglers are going around Mexico now.”