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September 9, 1999
Web posted at: 8:31 a.m. EDT (1231 GMT)

In this story: Cocaine conspiracy alleged Suspects allegedly bypassed Customs Authorities note Labor Day shipment RELATED STORIES, SITES

MIAMI (CNN) -- In overnight raids, Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs Service agents began rounding up another 15 Miami International Airport ramp workers charged in a drug conspiracy sting.

It was the second time in just over two weeks that authorities disclosed the results of an undercover drug operation at the airport.

A news conference on the sting was scheduled at 1 p.m. EDT Thursday by U.S. Attorney Tom Scott.

In the current sting, all but two of the 15 people charged worked for companies that provide ground services for several airlines at Miami International.

Three of those ramp agents were identified as supervisors or ramp duty managers.

DEA Special Agent Vincent Mazzilli said those arrested Thursday were not daunted by the earlier arrests of ramp workers.

"They were very brazen in how they proceeded to conduct negotiations with undercover agents," said Mazzilli. "They remarked that the people at American Airlines were stupid to get caught and they were smarter. And, we all know that they weren't."

According to the DEA's Miami spokesman Brent Eaton, the workers are accused in a criminal complaint of conspiring to smuggle cocaine and intent to distribute it.

Like the August 25 sting which netted 58 American Airlines ramp workers and Sky Chefs Internatonal food caterers, in a joint DEA-U.S. Customs Service operation, the workers in this sting allegedly off-loaded luggage they were told held cocaine on incoming international flights from Aruba, Nassau, and Quito, Ecuador.

The cocaine used in the sting turned out to be phony.

But Mazzilli is confident the investigation was handled properly.

"We approached this investigation very carefully, working in concert with the U.S. Attorney's office. And, we've assured ourselves as well as the prosecutors that there are no entrapment issues," said Mazzilli. "But, again, that'll be decided at the time of court."

Undercover agents posed as drug dealers and used informants to contact ramp workers who allegedly boasted about their expertise in smuggling drugs through the airport.

The suspects allegedly bypassed required U.S. Customs inspections and delivered the luggage either to a baggage claim carousel or drove it off directly off site, for example, to an employee parking lot.

The DEA says the workers are charged with off-loading fake cocaine on planes for Bahamas Air, Air Aruba, and Ecuatoriana Airlines, who co-operated in the investigation.

The workers were said to be employed by Evergreen Aviation Ground Logistics Enterprises (EAGLE), Dispatch Services, Inc., and American Sales and Management Organization.

The suspects allegedly were paid up to $32,000 per shipment for a total of less than 40 kilos of phony cocaine.

Law enforcement agents say the sting began last October.

The most recent shipment allegedly arrived on Labor Day on a flight from Nassau, Bahamas. CNN has learned that the August 25 arrests apparently did not dissuade today's defendants.

According to law enforcement sources, after the American Airlines ramp agents were arrested, one of the current suspects told an undercover agent that the arrests did not affect his "crew."

The suspect allegedly said his crew was willing and ready to proceed with a shipment on Labor Day.

In another instance, sources say, the suspects lost a load of phony cocaine and wound up paying undercover agents more than $5,000 and promised to "work off the rest of their debt."

American Airlines was not targeted in this sting.

In the August 25 arrests, ramp workers and food caterers were accused of conspiring to smuggle both real and fake cocaine inside luggage and food carts, as well as guns and grenades. That bogus contraband was then allegedly delivered to undercover agents on domestic flights.

In that sting called Operation Ramp Rats and Operation Sky Chefs, some of the workers allegedly were off duty when they used their security passes to bypass security.

Some allegedly bypassed X-ray machines and changed out of their uniforms once they entered a gate area before flying free to deliver a drug shipment on domestic flights.

After the arrests last month, U.S. Attorney Tom Scott and other law enforcement agents criticized Miami's airport security as "intolerable and dangerous."

Miami-Dade County officials and the FAA contend the airport security meets all requirements, but add that improvements will soon be added.

For example, personal bags that ramp workers carry to work will be checked at the beginning and end of their shifts.

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