LAKE CITY, Fla. - Three kilos of cocaine were found on two different JetBlue jets at a
hangar in Lake City, the Columbia County Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday.
The total street value for all three kilos of cocaine totals $180,000.
On Wednesday, July 20, a kilo of cocaine was found by HAECO Americas
personnel while doing service on a JetBlue A320 aircraft, investigators said.
"We got information from HAECO employees that they had found a
brick, which turned out to be a kilo of powder cocaine," CCSO Sgt.
Murray Smith said.
The aircraft had been used on about 360 flights during the last three
months before being flown from JFK Airport in New York to Lake City for
service. The last destination prior to JFK was a stop in the Dominican Republic.
Then on Sunday, two additional kilos of cocaine were found on a
different JetBlue A320 aircraft in the exact same area as the first. Murray
said that aircraft was also flown down from New York to be serviced.
"Now some of it is being sent to Tallahassee for testing. And there
is a fourth package being tested for fingerprints," Smith said.
The Sheriff's Office told News4Jax that JetBlue aircrafts go to HAECO
regularly for service, but the airline does not have flights out of the Lake
City Airport.
Authorities are unclear as to whether the drugs were put on board the
aircraft at a domestic or international
At this point, Smith said, they do not believe the drugs were intended
for Lake City, due to the fact that service personnel working on the aircraft were
responsible for turning the drugs over.
"We are pretty confident that maybe someone is missing three kilos
of cocaine and they are wondering where it is. Well, it's here in
Florida," Smith said.
The Lake City Police Department, Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
will be assisting the Sheriff's Office in the investigation.
HAECO and JetBlue are cooperating with the investigation, Smith
said.
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