Catherine Rusoff
Four flight attendants have been charged in an alleged drug money smuggling scheme from the U.S. to the Dominican Republic, authorities announced Wednesday.
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York alleged in two unsealed indictments that Charlie Hernandez, Sarah Valerio Pujols, Emmanuel Torres and Jarol Fabio participated in a years-long scheme to smuggle bulk cash obtained from drug sales on behalf of drug traffickers. United States to the Dominican Republic.
All four flight attendants worked for major international airlines and flew from the U.S. to the Dominican Republic and, according to prosecutors, knew they were transporting drug money.
The flight attendants used their “known crew” status, a program that allows airline employees to pass through security checkpoints with “personal property,” to pass through security checkpoints with large amounts of cash, they said. the promoters.
Two flight attendants met with a confidential informant working for the Department of Homeland Security, who gave them $60,000 to take to the Dominican Republic, the indictment said. The other two flight attendants received approximately $121,215 in drug profits from a confidential informant, the complaint alleged. Those funds were split with another flight attendant to take him to the Dominican Republic, according to prosecutors.
“This investigation exposed critical vulnerabilities in the aviation security industry and illuminated the methods drug traffickers are using,” Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Ivan J. Arvelo said in a statement.
Authorities have not clarified whether there has been an increase in drug smuggling or drug proceeds by airline employees. However, in recent years, several airline employees have been charged and convicted of using their status as trusted employees to smuggle money and drugs through airports and onto planes.
An American Airlines mechanic was sentenced last year for trying to smuggle 25 kilos of cocaine under the cabin of a plane from New York to Jamaica. A flight attendant in Dallas pleaded guilty in 2022 to the smuggling of fentanyl taped to his belly on a flight from Fort Worth to San Francisco.
