Former Baggage Handler At JFK Sentenced To 3 Life Terms For Running Drug Ring
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A former American Airlines baggage handler at John F. Kennedy International Airport has been sentenced to three life terms plus an additional 35 years for running a drug smuggling ring.
The Voodoo practicing Victor Bourne was convicted on charges that he used his job as a baggage handler to smuggle cocaine aboard planes going in and out of JFK.
WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reports
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Federal judge Nicholas Garafis said that Bourne deserved such an extraordinary sentence because he and his drug smuggling ring dismantled parts of the airplanes in order to hide their shipments of cocaine.
In one instance, they took apart a jetliner's wing to hide narcotics inside, WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported.
Bourne's mother traveled to Africa during his trial to hire a witch doctor to help him by putting a curse on prosecutors, Cornell reported.
Bourne, 37, was found guilty last year on charges that he helped orchestrate he smuggling of more than 330 pounds of cocaine from 2000 to 2009.
Authorities said the Barbados native made millions of dollars through the smuggling ring.
The sentencing ended the federal investigation that led to the convictions of 20 people involved in the drug ring.
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