US arrests American Airlines workers on suspicion of drug smuggling at Puerto Rican airport

September 30th, 2009 Puerto Rico union leaders clash with policeSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Union leaders scuffled with police outside the governor's mansion Tuesday during a protest against mass layoffs of public workers in this U.S. territory, which has a jobless rate higher than any U.S.

September 30th, 2009 US agents target 73 suspects in PR anti-drug raidSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hundreds of U.S. and local agents swept into a town in southern Puerto Rico on Tuesday to break up violent drug rings accused of operating out of several public housing projects.

September 30th, 2009 DR cops find ostriches, boars on fugitive's farmSANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Police raiding a Dominican Republic farm allegedly owned by a drug fugitive found a menagerie of exotic animals including ostriches and a wild boar. Prosecutor Alejandro Moscoso says a warehouse on farmland outside Santo Dominigo allegedly owned by Puerto Rican fugitive Jose Figueroa Agosto was used to store drugs.

September 22nd, 2009 PR authorities say major drug dealer arrestedSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Authorities have captured an alleged dealer they say led a violent drug ring in at least two sprawling housing projects in Puerto Rico and trafficked narcotics to the U.S. mainland. The arrest of Angel Ayala Vazquez, also known as "Angelo Millones," has "dealt a hard blow to drug trafficking in Puerto Rico," Javier F.

September 21st, 2009 Correction: Puerto Rico-Drug War storySAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — In a Sept. 20 story about drug trafficking in Puerto Rico, The Associated Press, relying on figures provided by the Joint Interagency Task Force South, reported erroneously that 1,430 metric tons of cocaine reached the island last year.

September 20th, 2009 US struggles to keep up in Puerto Rico's drug warSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — With a stucco mansion in the hills outside San Juan and four luxury cars, including a Corvette, Wilfredo Rodriguez lived well for a part-time worker on an airport ground crew. U.S. prosecutors say Rodriguez, who wrapped cargo in plastic for American Airlines, built his fortune over the last decade by smuggling drugs aboard commercial flights — one small slice of the hundreds of tons of South American cocaine that flow through Puerto Rico to the U.S.

September 16th, 2009 SAfrica police bust drug smuggling syndicateJOHANNESBURG — South African police say they've busted an international drug smuggling syndicate housed in a warehouse with African souvenirs. South Africa's prosecuting authority says three Britons face drug smuggling charges.

September 15th, 2009 US targets smugglers at Puerto Rico airportSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Nine employees of American Airlines have been charged with participating in a smuggling ring that shipped cocaine from Puerto Rico's main airport aboard flights to the U.S. mainland, officials said Tuesday.

September 4th, 2009 Airport workers charged with smuggling migrantsSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal grand jury in the U.S. Virgin Islands has indicted two ticket agent contractors who worked for Delta Airlines and an airport employee on charges of conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants into the U.S.

September 4th, 2009 Ex-immigration agent accused of cocaine smugglingTUCSON, Ariz. — Authorities say a former high-ranking U.S.

September 4th, 2009 2 Delta workers charged with smuggling migrantsSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal grand jury in the U.S. Virgin Islands has indicted two former Delta Airlines ticket agents and an airport employee on charges of conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants into the U.S.

September 1st, 2009 TORONTO - A Punjabi-origin Indo-Canadian trucker driver was arrested Monday by US authorities for trying to smuggle marijuana from Canada. Forty-year-old driver Gurmit Singh of North York on the outskirts of Toronto was arrested on the Canada-US border in New York State Monday after he was found carrying 353 pounds of marijuana in his truck cargo.

July 25th, 2009 Smell of smoke forces plane's return to BostonBOSTON — An American Airlines flight bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico, has returned to Boston for an emergency landing about an hour after takeoff after a spokesman says the smell of smoke was discovered in a rear bathroom. American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner says Flight 1937 returned Saturday to Boston's Logan International Airport at 9:45 a.m.

July 6th, 2009 Sotomayor's relatives hope to attend hearingsMAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rican relatives of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor — the New York-born federal appeals judge who is vying to be the first Hispanic justice on the high court — hope to attend her confirmation hearings in Washington. "If they invite us, we will travel," said Jose Garcia Baez, a lawyer who is one of a number of Sotomayor's Puerto Rican cousins living on the west coast of the U.S.

June 16th, 2009 Guatemala seizes 9.9 million pseudoephedrine pillsGUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan authorities confiscated nearly 10 million pseudoephedrine pills worth $33 million on Tuesday — the country's biggest seizure of the methamphetamine precursor, police said. The 9.9 million pills were seized from a shipping container at Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala's main port on the Pacific coast, said police spokesman Donald Gonzalez.