US Customs officers arrested a Jet Blue flight attendant for allegedly smuggling heroin on a flight from Colombia to Orlando.
Two pounds of heroin disguised to look like pieces of chocolate candy were concealed in a “form-fitting garment” under the flight attendant’s uniform, NBC Miami reports. Officers discovered the illegal drugs during a routine screening of passengers and crew after the flight landed at Orlando International Airport on September 27.
According to the Orlando Sentinel , “[Carla] Alvarado told agents she was given the drugs in Colombia and was being paid $10,000 to deliver the heroin to Jorge Luis Alomar, an acquaintance in Orlando. Alvarado…agreed to help agents with their investigation and complete the delivery.”
With agents keeping a watchful eye, Alvarado met Alomar at a local restaurant for the hand off, and both were arrested at that time. Alomar claimed he paid the flight attendant $10,000 once before to bring drugs back from Bogota. Alomar also surrendered about 200 more grams of heroin to federal agents.
Both suspects have been charged with the federal crime of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Authorities granted the Jet Blue flight attendant a pretrial release while the other suspect remains in jail in Orange County, Fla.
To some degree, this situation almost sounds like the plot of the 1997 Quentin Tarantino movie Jackie Brown , except in the movie the title character (a flight attendant played by Pam Grier) gets arrested for smuggling cash and drugs from Mexico to the US for a gun-runner played by Samuel L. Jackson. She then has to cooperate with the ATF to get off the hook. Based on a novel by the late Elmore Leonard, the film is credited with revitalizing the acting careers of Grier and Robert Forster,who plays the bail bondsman with a heart of gold.
[thumbnail image credit: Aaron Gustafson ]