JetBlue Passenger Arrested At Logan After Cocaine Found In Shoes
BOSTON (CBS) – Quite an unusual arrest at Logan Airport.
Drug dealers have tried all kinds of ways to sneak drugs into this country now you add old smelly sneakers to the list.
It was officers from the US Customs and Border Enforcement who stopped this guy as he entered this country through Logan's International Terminal. The red flag: new stitching inside old sneakers.
WBZ-TV's Joe Shortsleeve reports
24-year-old Carlos Lanns looked a little shell shocked in East Boston district court Tuesday. Last night at the Jet Blue Terminal at Logan he was arrested by federal customs officers after they found something unusual wrapped in cellophane in his checked luggage. And before Lanns knew it he was surrounded by state police.
Erik Bennett is the prosecutor from Suffolk County District Attorney's office who handled the arraignment.
"Those state troopers were shown four pairs of shoes that were in Mr. Lanns' checked luggage. In those four pairs of shoes for a total eight shoes was a large quantity of cocaine."
It was not just cocaine in the sneakers. It was cocaine molded and colored to fit neatly inside the insoles of those sneakers.
It was almost four and half pounds of the white stuff.
And it was only spotted when a curious customs agent removed the insoles.
It is not entirely clear why he was coming to Boston. Prosecutors say he has an address in New Jersey but also has strong ties to the Dominican Republic. He was flying in from Santo Domingo at the time of his arrest.
What ever his plan for the foot shaped cocaine, prosecutors suggest it was a significant bust.
"When a kilogram is cut for individual consumption a kilogram has a street value of $100,000.00.
So here the defendant was in possession of over $200,000.00."
Lanns is not a US citizen but is a resident of New Jersey. His defense attorney said he was here because he was planning on moving to Boston. The judge ordered him held on $300,000 dollars cash bail.
Now sources tell WBZ Lanns initially tripped up on some questions and answers regarding his recent travel and that caused officers to look a little closer. That is when one of them spotted that new stitching inside several old pairs of sneakers.
