Suspected Airport Drug Smuggling Ring Busted

Twenty-five airport ground crew members were arrested and accused of smuggling tens of millions of dollars worth of cocaine and marijuana into the United States, officials said.

The suspects, nearly all current or former employees at Kennedy Airport, unloaded drugs stashed aboard flights from Guyana and diverted it around border inspection areas, prosecutors said.

Federal officials began surveillance on flights from Guyana 14 months ago and watched suspects unload drugs that had been stashed in luggage, cargo and, in one case, under ice in a plane’s galley, authorities said.