(CMR) A United States baggage handler involved in a scheme to smuggle fake cocaine from the Cayman Islands to the United States was sentenced to 15 years on Friday, December 11.
Tyrone Woolaston of Orange, New Jersey used his position as a baggage handler at Newark Liberty International Airport to smuggle cocaine into the United States from 2013 to 2018. He was caught during a sting operation with a false cocaine shipment from the Cayman Islands in 2018.
During the operation, arrangements were made for Woolaston to smuggle cocaine for an informant. Agents placed a bag stuffed with fake cocaine bricks on a flight from the Cayman Islands. Woolaston, in keeping with arrangements, picked it up from the baggage ramp.
He was arrested the following day as he handed over the shipment to the informant. Woolaston was armed with a .40 caliber when he was arrested.
Prosecutors said Woolaston used his secure access to evade customs screening.
He was convicted, in February 2019, after a two-week jury trial, of conspiring to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and using a firearm in furtherance of cocaine trafficking.
Woolaston was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan on Friday.
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