Feds intercept suitcase with cocaine at airport

7 kilos found; two men arrested

Two men have been arrested on cocaine charges after federal agents intercepted a suitcase stuffed with nearly 7 kilograms of the drug at Logan International Airport on a commercial flight from the Dominican Republic, authorities said.

According to acting U.S. Attorney William D. Weinreb, Juan Luis Perez Garcia, 44, a Dominican national living in the Bronx, N.Y., and Juan Artiles Taveras, 43 of Lakewood, N.J., were arrested Saturday in a parking lot in Attleboro and charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine, a released statement said.

Federal officials said Garcia and Taveras arranged for the drugs to be flown on a JetBlue flight from the Dominican Republic to Boston.

Feds worked with a cooperative witness, who was not named, to gain intelligence about the drugsmuggling operation. That witness spoke with Garcia in February 2016, arranging the deal with the understanding the witness would pick up the suitcase full of drugs at Logan International Airport, authorities said.

Several prior attempts to fly the drugs overseas aboard a commercial flight had been aborted by the smugglers before Friday, when agents intercepted the suitcase full of cocaine after the flight landed at Logan, authorities said.

“Upon arrival of the flight in Boston, federal agents intercepted the suitcase and conducted a field test which tested positive for cocaine and weighed nearly seven kilos. On the evening of June 3, 2017, Perez Garcia and Artiles Taveras met the (witness) and undercover officer at a parking lot in Attleboro, Mass., to exchange money for the drugs. Federal agents placed the two men under arrest.”