Heroin found hidden in dog crate at US airport

Two men were arrested on drug charges after heroin was found hidden in the false bottom of a dog crate containing a Labrador retriever that had been shipped from Puerto Rico to New York. Samuel Seabrooks, 35, of the Bronx, and Carlos Betancourt-Morales, 27, of Carmel, were arraigned on drug possession and conspiracy charges Sunday, according to the Queens district attorney’s office. Prosecutors said Seabrook and Betancourt-Morales met up at a Bronx IHOP restaurant Friday night and traveled in separate vehicles to the American Airlines Priority Parcel Services at Kennedy Airport. The two men had a brief conversation before Betancourt-Morales entered the cargo building and signed for a delivery receipt for the dog crate, prosecutors said. He was stopped by police as he pushed the crate on a rolling cart toward the building’s exit. After obtaining a search warrant, authorities recovered 10 plastic wrapped packages containing more than 22 pounds of heroin with a street value of more than $1 million.