Oops. A Fly Jamaica Airways flight attendant working the March 17 flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica, to New York JFK, tried to enter the country with some undeclared goods, to put it mildly. The flight attendant, Hugh Hall, had four packages of cocaine taped to his legs. Together the cocaine weighed about nine pounds, and had a street value of about $160,000.
Upon arrival in the US, the flight attendant was pulled aside for extra screening by US Customs & Border Protection officers, and then in a private search room it was discovered that he had this much cocaine on him. The man now faces federal narcotics smuggling charges, and presumably will be looking at some jail time.
This isn’t the first time that a flight attendant has been caught trying to smuggle drugs. It’s actually much more common than you may think. When you think about it, it’s the perfect job for a drug smuggler, since they have a reason to take short trips between countries, and in many cases are subjected to less screening than other passengers. To be clear, I’m not at all suggesting that flight attendants are all secret drug smugglers, but like the rest of the population, there are some who are lured by the prospect of “easy” money.
This incident is nothing compared to the JetBlue flight attendant (a former Jamaican beauty queen) who was caught with 70 pounds of cocaine in her suitcase at LAX in 2016. She was a “Known Crewmember,” meaning that she could bypass security, though she was then subjected to a random screening.
At that point she took off her Gucci heels and fled, leaving the suitcase behind. Perhaps the craziest part is that she managed to flee, and even managed to get on a flight to New York the next day. She was only caught when she turned herself in once back in New York. That’s reassuring on so many levels, isn’t it? 😉
I was once seated next to a officer from the dutch drug police on a KL flight to Colombia. He told me that it is very common for flight attendants and also pilots to smuggle drugs since they are hardly screened. He also said KL's maintenance finds some leftovers hidden in the planes when they service them in Manila.
The FA was caught bc a former (i believe it was) an FBI agent saw the FA walking funny thru the aisles while delivering things to passengers and then he said something to someone either at the airport or on the plane, not sure exactly who or where he made personnel aware but afterwards the FA was searched and arrested on the spot. It was on the radio on a couple different stations this morning.
Ahhhh... Like in the good ol' times... Every flight from S.America was arriving in USA with a load of blow.
Soooo nostalgic right now...
I don't think its fair to write down her name, which will stay on the internet for good, before she was convicted in court
@ R B It's probably because the flight originated from Jamaica. If you watched "To Catch a Smuggler"(was on Netflix), it was a series about CBP at JFK. They said that they pay extra attention to flights coming from Jamaica, Guyana, Colombia etc because they are known drug smuggling routes. Hell the only time I've ever been pulled for a bag search was when I got off a JAL flight at JFK and ended up in line with a bunch of Fly Jamaica pax.
Lucky, not sure if EM is joking but I'm guessing that comment should be deleted either way.
I wonder why the US Customs pulled the FA for extra-screening: did they receive a tip from another FA or an insider? Was it a way to attract attention on a specific mule while another drug package was going to JFK?
9 pounds strapped to the legs eh? Back in the day some South Americans would swallow condoms filled with cocaine before take-off and then ... well no need to explain anything further as to the possible results after landing at JFK.
Wow. This reads like the poop kings article word to word 3rd paragraph on. Not that I go to his blog anymore. Do you bloggers have a syndicate and share articles?
As a regular narcotic consumer, I'm glad there are people in this world that are prepared to take these risks to get the magical powders to a mirror near my nose.
Thank you very much Hugh Hall, and to all the others that are willing to sacrifice their lives for people like me.
isn’t this the plot of the Tarantino movie “Jackie Brown”????