Cops and the feds busted an elaborate dope smuggling ring – “dubbed the Panama Express” – that used dozens of “swallowers” to transport heroin from Latin America to New York, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday.
Kelly said nearly $1 million worth of dope was seized and 19 people arrested in the joint investigation.
He said smugglers swallow latex-covered pellets filled with heroin before boarding a plane.
“[The drug mules] were part of a lucrative scheme to smuggle heroin from Panama to the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and The Bronx,” Kelly said.
The local ringleader, Silverio Guzman, of The Bronx, actively recruited smugglers of Panamanian descent and made travel arrangements for them to pick up stashes of dope, cops said.
The mules were reportedly paid up to $10,000 per trip – plus their airfare and expenses.
Guzman, nine other New Yorkers and a Rhode Island woman face federal drug-trafficking charges. Eight others face charges in Panama.