Plot to smuggle $130M coke from TT

A SENIOR British Airways employee was arrested on Thursday night in London over an alleged plot to smuggle TT $130 million worth of cocaine, most of which was expected on BA flights from Tobago and from BWIA aircraft from Trinidad. The cocaine was being smuggled through TT from the producers in South America.

The suspect, an employee in the airline’s engineering department, was among six people arrested in raids by Customs and Excise officers and more than 100 police officers. Undercover detectives tracked the group for four months on suspicion that they were planning to smuggle 200 kilos  (440 lbs) of cocaine by meeting couriers or “mules” off flights arriving at Heathrow International Airport. The BA employee was based at Terminal Four at Heathrow but had access to “all parts of the airport.” British Airways flights land at Terminal Four with BWIA flights at Terminal Three. British authorities have beefed up security following increased drug smuggling from the Caribbean and South America.

The British police have been in touch with their counterparts in Trinidad in an attempt to locate the persons who are involved in this country. Local police officers are keeping an eye on certain airline employees based at Piarco. They believe that the airline workers are operating with certain drug dealers to stash cocaine on flights bound for England. In August, British police acted to reduce the quantity of cocaine smuggling through Heathrow Airport by installing scanners at airports in the Caribbean, the main conduit for smuggling Class A drugs into Britain. After scanners were installed at Jamaican airports, the number of drug mules caught before boarding flights doubled, while arrests in Britain fell by 75 percent.

Equipment has been sent to Antigua, St Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad, Tobago, Barbados, Grand Cayman and Grand Turk to prevent them becoming new transit zones. Since the scanners were introduced, local police have made more arrests and detected more drugs. This week’s operation involved raids by Surrey Police and Customs and Excise officers at Heathrow Airport and a number of addresses in Stanwell, Surrey. It followed intensive surveillance of the gang, who are believed to have smuggled “large quantities” of cocaine into London and the Home Counties. One man was released later with a caution for possessing Class A drugs, but four men and a woman, including the BA employee, were still in custody at Staines Police Station.

Superintendent Richard Morris said: “The operation we have carried out will have a significant impact upon the availability of these drugs and demonstrates that we are determined to take action against those who think they are untouchable. This is an example of inter-agency law enforcement at its best.” Peter Avery, assistant chief investigation officer of Customs and Excise, said: “This should send a message to all those involved in criminal activities, whether at importation or street level. That is: we will catch you.” The operation was conducted with the co-operation of British Airways security.