An alleged drug smuggler was busted at JFK Airport Friday for allegedly trying to illegally import cocaine hidden in bags of jumbo shrimp, federal prosecutors announced Saturday.
Zacharie Scott, 22, a U.S. citizen residing in Guyana, was caught with the drug-laden shrimp bundles in his bags upon departing an American Airlines flight that arrived at Kennedy Airport from the South American nation on Jan. 19.
Federal authorities said Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at JFK selected Scott for secondary inspection and went through his luggage, where they found what, at first, appeared to be two containers of jumbo shrimp.
Upon further inspection, authorities said, the inspectors found concealed within the shrimp bundles numerous bricks of powder later revealed to be cocaine. The packages weighed 18.45 kilograms in total, and have an estimated street value of between $239,850 and $479,700.
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