Five Famous Airlines Whose Crew Was Caught Smuggling Drugs

Five Famous Airlines Whose Crew Was Caught Smuggling Drugs

Plane passengers caught drug-smuggling is not rare, but it is not very common to see headlines of an airline crew engaged in this crime. Let’s look at some cases of drug-smuggling crew getting caught by the law.

  1. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA): Crew members of the national flag carrier of Pakistan have been caught smuggling drugs more than once. On March 11, 2018, The Nation published the story of a PIA flight attendant arrested in Paris for smuggling heroin. The drug was smuggled by the flight attendant on a Lahore-to-Paris flight. Last year, Pakistan Aviation reported that 4 major cases of drug smuggling on PIA planes were found by authorities.
  2. Emirates Airline: Owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Emirates Airline made news in January 2018 when one of its flight attendants was caught smuggling £100,000 worth of heroin on an Emirates flight from Dubai to Manchester. The 30-year-old flight attendant pleaded guilty in a Manchester court and has been sentenced to 8 years in prison.
  3. Fly Jamaica Airways: On March 17, 2018, a crew member of Fly Jamaica Airways was arrested for smuggling pounds of cocaine on board a flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica, to JFK Airport in New York. The man had taped the drug to his legs.
  4. JetBlue Airways: The well-known American airline made news in December 2016 for a flight attendant of it getting caught at Los Angeles Airport (LAX) in March that year smuggling 60 pounds of cocaine in her bag. She ran away when she was flagged for a security search at the airport and later pleaded guilty to the crime. She had also been a runner-up at the Miss Jamaica World 2008 pageant.
  5. Air India: In August 2017, a cabin crew member of India’s national carrier Air India was arrested by authorities in Chennai for trying to smuggle in about 2 kilograms of Cannabis. Financial Express reporting the story wrote that the illegal drug was hidden in meal service cart of the Air India flight.

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