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Drug lord smuggled heroin aboard Spanish navy training ship: prosecutors – Metro US

Drug lord smuggled heroin aboard Spanish navy training ship: prosecutors

Drug lord smuggled heroin aboard Spanish navy training ship: prosecutors
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An accused Colombian drug kingpin who authorities say smuggled heroin and cocaine aboard a historic Spanish navy ship was arraigned in New York City Monday after being extradited to the U.S.

Jorge Luis Hoayeck, 52, is accused of shipping more than 17 pounds of narcotics on the Juan Sebastian de Elcano, a training ship for the Royal Spanish Navy, prosecutors said.

Hoayeck and an accomplice, Jorge Alberto Siado-Alvarez, paid $32,000 to Navy midshipmen to hide the drugs on the ship and deliver them to distributors in New York, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The 1927 training ship docked near the USS Intrepid on Manhattan’s west side and on May 14, 2014, the midshipmen delivered the drugs to the Bronx, prosecutors said.

Hoayeck faces a slate of charges, including conspiracy, criminal sale of a controlled substance and operating as a major drug trafficker under New York State’s kingpin statute. The trafficking charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

An attorney for Hoayeck declined to comment to the Journal.

Colombia is expected to approve the extradition of Siado-Alvarez.