Woman Charged With Trafficking Cocaine Into Bradley Airport

WINDSOR LOCKS, CT — A resident of Puerto Rico has been charged with trafficking a large amount of cocaine in her luggage on a recent flight from San Juan to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks.

Karina Cintron Santiago, 24, was indicted on June 20 by a grand jury in New Haven with possession with intent to distribute cocaine. She appeared Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. Richardson in Hartford, entered a plea of not guilty to the charge, and was released on a $75,000 bond, according to Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Michael J. Krol, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations, New England.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on June 4, a search of a luggage bag Cintron Santiago checked prior to boarding a JetBlue flight from San Juan Airport to Bradley revealed about 12 kilograms of cocaine. When Cintron Santiago arrived in Connecticut and discovered her bag was not at baggage claim, she reported it lost. JetBlue personnel informed her that when her bag was located, they would deliver it to her, but she indicated she would rather pick it up at the airport, Avery said.

On June 7, undercover investigators posing as JetBlue personnel contacted Cintron Santiago to inform her the bag had been located and would be arriving on a flight to Bradley the next day. On June 8, investigators placed the bag, which contained its original contents, on a luggage carousel at the airport. Cintron Santiago was arrested after she arrived at the airport and removed her bag from the carousel, Avery said.

The charge of possession with intent to distribute cocaine carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years, according to Avery.