Baggage handler at NYC airport gets life in prison

slimvictor

slimvictor

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
6,477
Location
"Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness.
The testimony at a federal drug trafficking trial was chilling: Jurors heard how bribed baggage handlers at John F. Kennedy International Airport concealed cocaine on commercial jets inside sensitive wing assembly compartments.

Saying the tactic risked the lives of passengers, a federal judge sentenced the convicted leader of the drug ring on Tuesday to life in prison.

Former American Airlines baggage handler Victor Bourne was found guilty last year of charges he used his behind-the-scenes access at New York City's busiest airport to orchestrate the smuggling of more than 330 pounds of cocaine from 2000 to 2009.

(...)


An unrepentant Bourne insisted investigators used "false evidence" to frame him.

"How can I accept responsibility for something that I don't have nothing to do with?" the 37-year-old native of Barbados asked.

The sentencing capped a federal investigation that has resulted in the convictions of 20 people — 19 of them airlines employees — the seizure of large amounts of cocaine and the forfeiture of $6.9 million. As leader of the crew, Bourne made millions of dollars that he laundered through business ventures in Brooklyn and Barbados, authorities said.

Bourne "turned American Airlines into his personal narcotics shuttle service, running a criminal organization that ignored passenger safety and security in pursuit of a greater goal — enriching Victor Bourne," U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.


cont at
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/texas...t-NYC-airport-gets-life-in-prison-3953492.php
 
An unrepentant Bourne insisted investigators used "false evidence" to frame him.

"How can I accept responsibility for something that I don't have nothing to do with?" the 37-year-old native of Barbados asked.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't surprise me at this stage.

$50 says he's black.
 
"How can I accept responsibility for something that I don't have nothing to do with?"

So you do have something to do with it? :\
 
ht_victor_bourne_nt_121016_wg.jpg
 
A former American Airlines baggage handler was sentenced today to life in prison for his role in leading a vast, multi-million dollar drug-smuggling ring known as the "Bourne Organization" and using the airline as his "personal narcotics shuttle service," federal officials said.

The Department of Justice said that Victor Bourne, a Barbadian national, had been convicted of leading a group that smuggled as much as 150 kilograms of cocaine from the Caribbean through New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport over nearly 10 years.

In the far-reaching scheme, federal officials said the Bourne Organization would pay off airline crew chiefs to make sure its own crooked baggage handlers oversaw certain shipments. On the flights, the drugs were hidden behind panels in the cargo holds, in the ceiling and wing assembly, in the aircraft's avionics and in "other vital equipment compartments," the Department of Justice said. To get the drugs out of the airport, employees would hide them in their clothing and then deliver the narcotics to Bourne.



Bourne was arrested in 2009 and the investigation into the organization led to the conviction of 19 other airline employees who were in on the scheme, the seizure of nearly 3,000 pounds of marijuana and the forfeiture of $6.9 million.

"Using his insider status, Bourne turned American Airlines into his personal narcotics shuttle service," U.S. attorney Loretta Lynch said in a press release, "running a criminal organization that ignored passenger safety and security in pursuit of their greater goal -- enriching Victor Bourne."

Bourne was brought down at trial by six witnesses, all former American Airline employees, who had pled guilty to their own narcotics trafficking charges.
Click to expand...

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bourn...-employee-life/story?id=17491090#.UIeWi7QijHg

^ Where the pic of him is from.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top