Drug Seizure
The aircraft departed Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas, Venezuela on the afternoon of April 10, 2006. Approximately 1½ hours into the flight, it reportedly returned to the airport and refueled before resuming its flight to Toluca, Mexico. However, some time into the flight they made an emergency landing at the Ciudad del Carmen airport, claiming hydraulic problems with the landing gear. The flight crew told the ground crew to keep people away from the aircraft, claiming leaking oil could be hazardous and that a tire could explode.
The flight crew was identified as Marco Perez De Gracia, and Carmelo Vázquez Guerra, a Colombian National with Venezuelan passport.
The Mexican police approached the aircraft with drug-sniffing dogs and the ground crew attempted to keep them away, without success. The dogs identified the presence of drugs and the police entered the aircraft, they found 5.5 tons of cocaine packed into 128 identical black suitcases they arrested the pilot, Carmelo Vázquez Guerra, who later "vanished".
A Falcon business jet of Mexican registry (XB-IYK) was making a rendezvous with the DC-9 and its crew was also arrested. The pilot of the Falcon was loto Fernando Joaquín Poot Pérez, who was working as flight coordinator manager for la Comisión Nacional del Agua but was later released.
There are reports that say Mexican soldiers patrolling the airport observed a Falcon arriving several days before the DC-9's arrival and that two Mexican pilots were seen in the area throughout the next few days and reportedly attempted to pay for the DC-9 to make an emergency landing after the airport was closed.
The DEA lists the bust as one of Mexico's largest in recent history, using it as an example of international cooperation against drug trafficking and a part of "Operation All Inclusive".
After a few weeks, no one was interested in this case. But in July 2008, Mexican authorities had to recall some details of this case, as in Guinea Bissau airport landed a jet from Venezuela loaded with 515 kilos of cocaine and inside was none other than the pilot Carmelo Vázquez Guerra but this time he didn't disappear he was simply released as the judge, with the connivance of the Attorney General, decreed the freedom of all detainees for lack of evidence, three Latino-Americans and Guinean.
That didn't stop the pilot who continued in the drug trade and was arrested for a third time in Caracas Venezuela inside a car in which three men were traveling, the police found 70 panels of cocaine with a gross weight of 70 kilograms. Guerra Vasquez had an arrest warrant pending for the DC-9 drug bust
Read more about this topic: 2006 Mexico DC-9 Drug Bust
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