Popular Mechanics - USA (2019-03)

@PopularMechanics _ March 2019 61

smuggler. As only 10 percent of

the shipment was retained, the

man got 90 percent of his drugs,

and by the time the appraiser’s

examination disclosed the drugs

in the packages retained, the

smuggler and his narcotics had

disappeared. A pearl smuggler

bought his supplies at an island off

the Central American coast, took

ship for New York via Puerto Rico,

where a confederate received the

gems. As the confederate had boarded the ship at an American port

and had not been outside American territory, he was not subject to

examination at New York, while the smuggler was able to pass with a

clean bill, despite the most careful search of his person and luggage.

The Customs service now has agents scattered all over the world.

They keep watch in Paris, London, and other foreign cities for

professional smugglers, or for large purchases of rare gems by rich

travelers, and cable the information to New York. If a traveler who

has purchased a pearl necklace or some diamonds in Paris fails to

declare the jewels on landing in the United States, trouble is ahead.

During 1923, the Customs service made 643 arrests and obtained

351 convictions, with 182 cases still pending.

We asked a Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent on the John F. Kennedy Airport’s

Border Enforcement Security Task Force team to tell us about the new ways smugglers attempt

to get narcotics into the U.S. He came back with this story about diplomas.

In 2012, I’d been work-

ing Ecuador cases

for a while when we

received informa-

tion on an individual

named Jorge Guer-

rero, a lost-luggage

handler at JFK, who

was importing parcels

of narcotics into the

U.S. from Ecuador. His

organization used sev-

eral methods. It was

smart. One package

was cocaine-stuffed

empanadas. There was

cocaine concealed in

candy bars, which I’d

seen before. The nuts

were creative, too—

they put heroin in nuts.

When we seized a box

of scuba-diving diplo-

mas, we didn’t know

what we were looking

at. There was a certain

smell to them, which I

recognized as cocaine.

I’d seen liquid cocaine

before, but this organi-

zation had soaked the

diplomas in over three

pounds of it and then

let them dry. That’s the

first time I’d seen that.

There are dozens of

express consignment

stores in the tristate

area that function like

a private UPS, only for

parcels from Ecua-

dor. You don’t need a

name or an address,

and most stores don’t

ask for ID. In this case,

the organization

used false names and

addresses on pack-

ages that were sent

on commercial airlin-

ers, then Guerrero

picked them up at the

stores. Guerrero must

have been doing this

for a while because

he was too comfort-

able. At first, he used

code words on the

phone, like “wedding

dress” for cocaine

and “brown wedding

dress” for heroin, but

after a while he would

straight out say it.

On intercepted over-

seas phone calls with

Ecuador, we’d hear

them say the name or

tracking number for

each parcel, too.

Overall, we seized

$400,000 worth of

cocaine and heroin

from the same guy.

He didn’t figure it

out and kept order-

ing more. It comes

down to greed. A kilo

of cocaine in Ecuador

went for $3,000 back

then. Once it made it

to the U.S., that same

kilo sold for $25,000

to $28,000 and a kilo

of heroin for $50,000.

It’s good incentive to

be creative.—As told to

Rachel Sturtz

MODERN SMUGGLERS

2019

THE

UPDATE

Smithsonian

Has Termites

JULY 1956

Finest Squirrel Collection
Kept in Beautiful Home
OCTOBER 1922

MARCH

1971