18 arrested in JFK drug bust

Ten JFK Airport baggage handlers were among 18 arrested on Tuesday, October 16 for allegedly smuggling heroin and cocaine into New York City.
Jorge Espinal, a cargo supervisor for Delta Air Lines, allegedly oversaw the diversion of shipments into so-called “safe areas” where drug-sniffing dogs and inspectors would not see them.
Police say that ringleader Marco Polanco coordinated shipments with distributors in the Dominican Republic.
The Washington Heights resident is in jail in Westchester County on unrelated drug charges.
A two-year investigation utilized phone call interceptions in which the defendants allegedly referred to the drugs as “chickens and ducks.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Meredith Leung said that the airport workers had “virtually unfettered and unsupervised” access to the cargo holds of planes, where the drugs were stored during flights.
“Because they are so effective, these types of conspiracies often entrust the airline employees with kilogram quantities of narcotics, much larger than that which is typically brought into the United States by a single narcotics courier,” Leung said in published reports.
Among the 10 employees arrested, seven work for Delta; one for American Airlines; one for maintenance company Aramark; and the last for JFK-TNT courier service.