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#4397: Haitian airline snared for drug smuggling (fwd)
From:nozier@tradewind.net
WIRE:06/26/2000 16:33:00 ET
Haitian airline snared for drug
smuggling
MIAMI (Reuters) - Customs agents seized two planes belonging to a
company called Air de Ayiti Express in a bust of an operation allegedly
smuggling cocaine by air from Haiti to south Florida, the Customs
Service said Monday. Seven people were arrested and cocaine worth $2.3
million was seized. Agents had watched Air de Ayiti since March,
suspecting it of smuggling cocaine and illegal immigrants by landing
after-hours at airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. On Saturday
night, a Customs plane followed an Air de Ayiti Cessna when it left
Nassau in the Bahamas. Agents moved in when it landed at Miami's
Opa-Locka airport, arresting the pilot, a passenger and the latter's
wife, who was waiting to meet him. Four suitcases containing cocaine
were found.Four other people were arrested on Sunday and a second Air
de Ayiti plane was seized at Fort Lauderdale airport."The weekend events
are very significant, it is concrete evidence drugs cartels are
utilizing the Caribbean for air smuggling operations in addition to
go-fast boats and freighters arriving from the Bahamas and Haiti,"
Frank Figueroa, the chief Customs agent in Miami, said in a statement.