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200 pounds of cocaine seized from Logan Airport plane

E-mail|Link|Comments () January 29, 2010 02:15 PM

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

In one of the larger seizures of illicit drugs in Massachusetts in recent years, State Police and federal agents recovered 200 pounds of cocaine from a passenger aircraft after it landed Wednesday at Logan International Airport, authorities said today.

"We seized a significant amount of cocaine from an arrival flight at Logan Airport Wednesday night,'' said State Police spokesman David Procopio. He said the seizure was made by a joint task force of state troopers and agents from federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A spokesman for American Airlines said in an email this afternoon that the flight originated in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

"Because this is an active, open investigation we are limited in how much we can say,'' AA spokesman Tim Smith said. "I can tell you that our American Airlines Corporate Security department is working closely with local law enforcement authorities to investigate this incident.''

Procopio said no one has yet been charged in connection with smuggling the cocaine. Citing the ongoing investigation, he would not identify the airline involved or where the aircraft departed from.

In 2007, the US Drug Enforcement Administration estimated that a gram of pure cocaine sold on the street was worth about $150, suggesting the cocaine recovered at Logan may be worth $13 million.