College kids will smuggle alcohol into their dorm rooms, even though it is against most campus policies. One Fashion Institute of Technology student unwittingly smuggled in a much more serious contraband item that no RA would overlook.
The 21-year-old FIT student opened her suitcase to find 10 pounds of cocaine stashed inside, according to the New York Post. She made the discovery in her dorm room after her Aug. 15 flight into New York City and quickly called the cops.
"She said she had no idea how it got there," a police source said.
Police confiscated the four packages of white powder, which had a street value of $150,000.
The student had flown into JFK Airport from Trinidad and Tobago. Smugglers in the Caribbean may have misplaced the drugs in her bag or used her luggage to transport their product without her knowledge.
"If her story is true, that's the most likely scenario...There's no question about it," a Port Authority source said.
The scheme may have involved participants in both the Caribbean and New York, including "corrupt custom officials, baggage handlers or airport workers," according to the Post. Whatever the plan was, it failed when the drugs weren't collected before the FIT student found them.
"Smugglers play the odds...It has been done before to travelers, especially in countries where there's heavy narco-trafficking," the Port Authority source said.
Police are weighing all possible scenarios for the incident. The student has not been charged, but she's still under investigation. No other arrests have been made in the case.
"Maybe she was involved and got cold feet and wanted to get ahead of the story by calling police," a law-enforcement source told the Post. "Or maybe it was something more sinister."
The source added, "Maybe she didn't pack her bag, or maybe she really didn't have anything to do with it."
Trinidad and Tobago nation is located on the northeast coast of Venezuela. The country's government continues to struggle with curbing drug trafficking due to corruption and poorly-coordinated counternarcotic efforts, according to the U.S. State Department.
"Location, porous borders and direct transportation routes to Europe, West Africa, Canada and the United States make it an ideal location for cocaine and marijuana transshipment," the State Department wrote in its 2014 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.
