ICE, AirTAT partners seize more 40 kilograms of cocaine, arrest 4
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), working jointly with the Airport Investigations and Tactical Team (AirTAT), seized 40.4 kilograms of cocaine and arrested four individuals Friday at the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport (LMMIA).
Juan C. Rodriguez-Quinones, 34, of Bayamon, was arrested by HSI special agents when TSA officers encountered 11.5 kilograms of cocaine in his luggage. Another passenger, Alexander Negron-Zavala, 25, of San Juan, was arrested for allegedly carrying 5.6 kilograms of cocaine. Both men were bound to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In separate incidents, Ruben R. Santana-Rodriguez, 37, and Wilfredo Rodriguez-Figueroa, 45, both of Bayamon, were arrested when TSA officers discovered 11.6 and 11.7 kilograms of cocaine in their luggage before their departure to New York City and Atlanta, Georgia, respectively.
“HSI is committed to working with our federal, state and local counterparts in an effort to stop the movement of contraband in the Caribbean,” said Ricardo Mayoral, acting special agent in charge of HSI San Juan. “Those involved in drug trafficking should know that the Caribbean is no longer an option to transship narcotics into the United States.”
The four men had their initial hearings before U.S. Magistrate Marcos Lopez and were transferred to the Guaynabo Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting the outcome of their cases.
The AirTAT, an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF)-sponsored initiative, is responsible for disrupting and dismantling national and transnational criminal organizations that undermine the Caribbean’s legitimate travel, trade, financial and immigration systems by exploiting vulnerabilities at the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (LMMIA) as well the Fernando Luis Rivas Dominicci Airport (FLRDA), in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The AirTAT mission is achieved through close collaboration with other federal, state and local, entities and industry partners operating at the LMMIA and the FLRDA in order to protect the Caribbean frontier of the United States. The AirTAT conducts reactive and proactive operations involving a vast array of investigative areas such as narcotics smuggling and trafficking, money laundering, human smuggling and trafficking, bulk cash smuggling and immigration violations when these violations have a nexus to airport activities. The initiative is composed of ICE HSI, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI, the U.S Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD), Puerto Rico Department of Justice (PRDOJ), Puerto Rico Port Authority (PRPA), Puerto Rico Treasury Department (PRTF), Puerto Rico National Guard and the San Juan Municipal Police.
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