Brazil Airline Fined $35 Million in Drug Case
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MIAMI — The U.S. Customs Service has fined Varig Airlines, the Brazilian national carrier, $35.2 million for transporting more than a ton of cocaine found hidden in cardboard boxes on one of its planes, a customs spokesman said Sunday.
The plane was impounded Friday after the contraband was discovered, Clifford Stallings of the Customs Service office in Miami said. He said two suspects were arrested and charged with importing cocaine.
It was one of the biggest drug seizures from passenger aircraft in the United States, Stallings said.
The flight originated in Montivideo, Uruguay, and made a stop in Rio de Janeiro before arriving in Miami, Stallings said.
At the Miami airport, the drugs were loaded into a rented truck. Customs agents followed it to South Miami, where the driver, identified as Jose Machado, 55, of Uruguay, was arrested. A second suspect, Warley Dasilva, 47, of Brazil, was arrested later.
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