Customs Officers Report Finding Narcotics In Traveler's Baggage At Virginia Airport

DULLES, VA — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) made their second discovery of illicit narcotics in a passenger's baggage in a week leading to a felony drug possession arrest on Sunday, according to a release.

Joseph Claudio De Paula , 50-year-old U.S. citizen from Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts arrived at the Northern Virginia airport from São Paulo Brazil shortly after 8 a.m. A CBP officer referred the traveler for a secondary exemption. During the examination, CBP officers discovered a small vial with cocaine residue and the following items hidden inside De Paula's baggage:

• 29 tablets of Morphine
• 28 tablets of Codeine
• 14 tablets of Bromazepam
• nine tablets of Alprazolam
• over 60 tablets of Tadalafil
• one vial of steroids

It was at that point that CBP officers notified the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) police, who confiscated the illicit drugs and arrested De Paula on Sunday afternoon on felony narcotics possession charges.

This was the second time that CBP officers had seized narcotics from a traveler at IAD in a week that resulted in local criminal charges being filed.

MWAA police arrested rapper Victor Kwesi Mensah, who had arrived on a flight from Ghana on the morning of Jan. 15. CBP officers had found 41 grams of liquid lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), about 124 grams of psilocybin capsules, 178 grams of psilocybin gummies, and six grams of psilocybin mushrooms during a secondary search of his luggage.

“Travelers should know that narcotics interdiction remains a Customs and Border Protection enforcement priority, and that if they are packing illicit, prohibited or unapproved narcotics in their baggage that they risk facing potentially life-changing felony criminal charges,” said Daniel Escobedo, area port director for CBP’s Area Port of Washington, D.C., in a release. “Best advice that CBP officers can give travelers is to know what they can and cannot bring to the United States and to sweep their baggage clean of anything that violates our nation’s laws.”