SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — U.S. federal agents swept through Puerto Rico's largest airport and other areas early Wednesday, arresting dozens of baggage handlers, airline workers and others suspected of smuggling millions of dollars' worth of cocaine aboard commercial flights for at least a decade.
San Juan Puerto Rico is an island vacation spot for many Floridians, but it's also a place the Drug Enforcement Agency said is a major supplier of cocaine into Central Florida.
"Were you helping smuggle cocaine out of Puerto Rico?" WFTV reporter Jeff Deal asked suspects being arrested.
WFTV was at the international airport in San Juan Wednesday morning when dozens of DEA agents raided it, arresting people in two separate cocaine trafficking operations.
The DEA deputy administrator was from Washington, D.C.
"Anytime you deal with these security breaches at the airport it's very concerning," said DEA Deputy Administrator Thomas Harrigan.
Some of the suspects walked with their heads down.
"We have dismantled the two most significant drug operations at the airport," said Pedro Janer, acting special agent in charge of the DEA's Caribbean division.
The 45 suspects include 18 who worked for American Airlines and 19 who worked for Ground Motive Dependable, a local company that provides ramp and baggage services, said U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez.
"They put the security of all passengers at risk," she said.
Janer said gang members would enter the airport with drugs in their bags, on themselves or in their cars, then hand the drugs over to someone else inside airport bathrooms once they cleared security.
Investigators said they would conceal kilos of cocaine inside fuel trucks. Once inside the secure perimeter, the drugs would be hidden in suitcases on flights that were headed to Orlando, Miami and other major East Coast cities.
Since Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, the luggage never passes through U.S. Customs.
Some of the drugs allegedly belonged to Angel Ayala Vazquez, formerly considered Puerto Rico's top drug dealer and nicknamed "Angelo Millones," the DEA said. He was arrested in 2009 and later convicted.
A spokesman for American Airlines, Ed Martelle, said by email that the company always assists law enforcement in such cases and helps "prosecute the individuals responsible to the fullest extent of the law."
"We have a zero-tolerance policy for any employee when it comes to this type of activity," he said.
Officials with Ground Motive Dependable said they would soon issue a statement.
Gabriela Rivera said her father, Orlando Rivera, has worked for American Airlines for 27 years.
"They woke me up and my dad was already downstairs in handcuffs," Rivera said.
Family members looked on from outside a secured area where the suspects appeared before a federal judge on Wednesday.
Many proclaimed innocence, but federal investigators said the two trafficking operations sent more than 30,000 kilos of cocaine into the continental United States.
"Congress has recognized there's a problem," said Hector Pesquera, Puerto Rico's new police chief, adding that it should be easier to catch drug traffickers because drugs only arrive by air or water. "It's not that difficult. We don't have tunnels. They can't drive it here."
In the last two years, the DEA and other agencies have reported an increase in the size of cocaine shipments seized around Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Nearly 8,200 pounds (3,700 kilograms) have been seized as of May this year, compared with 10,800 pounds (4,900 kilograms) seized last year and more than 8,300 pounds (3,800 kilograms) in 2010.
Gov. Luis Fortuno said he is requesting more equipment and personnel for the Coast Guard, the DEA and other federal agencies to help reduce the number of drugs trafficked through the island.
WFTV
