Pants seem to be the latest trend in attempting to smuggle drugs into New York’s JFK International Airport as two men were arrested earlier this month for allegedly taping packages of drugs to their legs.
The men were arrested by Customs and Border Protection officials on April 19 after arriving in New York on a flight from the Dominican Republic, according to NBC4.
Ariel Garcia, who is a U.S. citizen, allegedly had 11 pounds of cocaine worth roughly $180,000. Dominican Republic citizen Elvin Montilla-Sosa was allegedly carrying 12 pounds of cocaine worth around $200,000. Both men are now facing federal drug smuggling charges.
Just last month, two men were nabbed weeks apart for allegedly smuggling a total of about $250,000 worth of cocaine in their pants. Those two had also traveled from the Dominican Republic to JFK.
One of them, who flew to the U.S. on March 4, aroused suspicion because he was “busting out of his pants,” which were “rather snug,” Customs said.
One of the men used duct tape to secure the contraband to his legs, while the other used a castlike casing in his attempt.
It is unknown if the arrests are linked. Customs said that taping is a common method of concealment used by smugglers.
In addition to the recent pants-smuggling plots, 10 kilos of heroin were found in a dog crate in late March at JFK.
The dog had traveled from Puerto Rico to New York, where officials found more than $1 million in heroin in the false bottom of his crate.
Two men, one from the Bronx and the other from Carmel, New York, were arrested and charged with first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree conspiracy after one was stopped when he signed for the 86-pound crate containing the shepherdlike dog.
