On Friday evening, 2 June, 2017, two men were arrested in Attleborough district of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States for allegedly trafficking nearly seven kilograms of cocaine from the Dominican Republic to Boston on a JetBlue flight, as reported in the Boston Globe.
Juan Luis Perez Garcia, a 44-year-old Dominican national currently living in the Bronx, NY, and 43-year-old Juan Artiles Taveras, of Lakewood, NJ, are both facing charges of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
Prosecutors said a cooperating witness worked with investigators to identify members of a narcotics organization based in the Dominican Republic. In June 2015, the witness and an undercover officer attended a meeting of the organization in the Dominican Republic, and learned about someone who could smuggle drugs onto flights bound for the US, authorities said.
The witness told the group that he worked at the Boston airport and could help retrieve the drugs once the flights landed, authorities said. Prosecutors said the witness spoke with Perez Garcia in February 2016 about putting cocaine on a Boston-bound plane from the Dominican Republic.
Prosecutors said multiple attempts were made over the next year to send cocaine to Boston, but none of them were successful.
On Friday, a suitcase containing cocaine was placed on a JetBlue flight from the Dominican Republic to Boston, authorities said. Officials intercepted the suitcase in Boston and found nearly seven kilograms of cocaine inside.
Perez Garcia and Atiles Taveras allegedly met the witness and the undercover officer at a parking lot in Attleborough Friday evening to exchange money for the drugs. Federal agents arrested the two men at the meeting.
Read more:
Boston Globe
7 June 2017
