Originally published Dulles CBP Finds Heroin in Guatemalan Shipment, Courier Arrested by MWAA Police on by https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/border-security/dulles-cbp-finds-heroin-in-guatemalan-shipment-courier-arrested-by-mwaa-police/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dulles-cbp-finds-heroin-in-guatemalan-shipment-courier-arrested-by-mwaa-police at Homeland Security
A Guatemalan woman is facing felony drug possession charges after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers discovered nearly two pounds of heroin concealed in a courier shipment at Washington Dulles International Airport on Sunday.
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police officers arrested Maria Jose Recinos Rodriguez, 31 and charged her with felony narcotics possession with intent to distribute charges.
Recinos Rodriguez arrived Sunday morning from Guatemala City, Guatemala, and was referred as a food courier to a routine secondary examination. Transnational criminal organizations sometimes attempt to smuggle dangerous drugs in courier shipments.
During the examination, CBP officers discovered three packages and four smaller sleeves concealed inside three bags of coffee that container a white substance. Officers tested the substances with a handheld elemental isotope analysis tool and identified the substance as heroin hydrochloride.
The heroin weighed a combined 798 grams, or one pound, 12 ounces. It has a street value of about $55,000.
CBP officers turned Recinos Rodriguez and the heroin over to Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police officers.
Criminal charges are merely allegations. Defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
“Drug trafficking organizations attempt all manner of concealment to smuggle their dangerous drugs unto the United States, including concealing it inside a seemingly innocuous courier shipment of food, but Customs and Border Protection officers prove time and again their proficiency in exposing those concealment methods,” said Marc E. Calixte, CBP’s Area Port Director for the Area Port of Washington, D.C. “CBP continues to work with our law enforcement partners to help protect our communities from the scourge of heroin and to help hold perpetrators accountable.”
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Originally published Dulles CBP Finds Heroin in Guatemalan Shipment, Courier Arrested by MWAA Police on by https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/border-security/dulles-cbp-finds-heroin-in-guatemalan-shipment-courier-arrested-by-mwaa-police/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dulles-cbp-finds-heroin-in-guatemalan-shipment-courier-arrested-by-mwaa-police at Homeland Security
Originally published Homeland Security
