Officers from Massachusetts State Police arrested two men on Saturday, July 2, who allegedly smuggled cocaine through Boston Logan International Airport.

Boston’s Airport officers found cocaine hidden in two passengers’ identical black Slazenger roller bags during a routine screening. Ezra Mendez and Erick Dominguez-Santos were charged on Saturday as they tried to smuggle cocaine into the United States. Mendez and Dominguez-Santos, both from Pennsylvania, were stopped by customs officers due to their luggage presented some abnormalities when the suitcases were passed through individual screenings. Mendez and Dominguez-Santos returned from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Two passengers were detained and inspected as officials suspected something was wrong. Notably, both men were trying to smuggle cocaine through the Logan Boston International Airport. Image Credit: Boston Globe
Two passengers were detained and inspected as officials suspected something was wrong. Notably, both men were trying to smuggle cocaine through the Boston Logan International Airport. Image Credit: Boston Globe

Massachusetts State Police reported on Monday that the airport’s customs officers found cocaine in both suitcases using probing and X-ray screening. The men face cocaine trafficking charges, and they have been arrested without bail in Boston.

“[The men] weren’t with each other, but they were associated with each other,” Massachusetts’ trooper, Paul Sullivan, said on Monday.

Sullivan added that both men were arrested by Customs and Border Protection officers at Boston airport. Both suspects were turned over to Massachusetts Sate Police Department. 

Three kilograms of cocaine hidden in suitcases’ liners

Ezra Mendez, 19, and Erick Dominguez-Santos, 25, arrived at Boston Logan International Airport from  Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Saturday morning. The two Allentown men carried out identical black suitcases as they passed through customs. During the screening, customs officers realized there was something unusual in the men’s black bags. So, officers stopped the two men to conduct a more exhaustive testing.

It was Mendez’s suitcase the first to be examined. At 10:15 a.m., after having completely emptied Mendez’s suitcase, the bag had still some “abnormalities,” although it was apparently empty, and the suitcase was unusually dark. Officers decided to pass Mendez’s bag through x-ray screening. Massachusetts’ police reported that screeners found two flat rectangular plastic-wrapped packages hidden in the suitcase’s liner.

Customs officers said that some white powder was discovered in the plastic-wrapped packages, which was determined to be cocaine.

After realizing what had been found in Mendez’s bag, Dominguez-Santos started looking nervous as his suitcase was being screened. Once Dominguez-Santos’s bag was fully emptied, it was still remarkably dense, so officers decided to use X-ray on the second bag too. Authorities found two flat rectangular plastic-wrapped packages in the liner, in Dominguez-Santos’s suitcase. Both bags contained three kilograms of cocaine in the suitcases’ hidden compartments.

As a result, both men were arrested and handed over to Massachusetts State Police. They are being held without bail in Boston

According to a spokesman for Massachusetts State Police, Mendez and Dominguez-Santos have been charged with drug trafficking and conspiring to violate drug law. It is possible they face federal charges later on.

Both men will be arraigned on Tuesday in the East Boston District Court.

Source: MCALL