Avianca Jet Seized After Cocaine Is Found in Rose Boxes

MIAMI — An Avianca Airlines cargo jet was seized Saturday and the carrier was fined nearly $8 million after U.S. Customs Service agents found 490 pounds of cocaine stashed in a shipment of red roses.

“This is the 14th time since January, 1986” that drugs were found aboard an Avianca flight, Customs Service spokesman Michael Sheehan said. “Avianca is a source of great concern for the Customs Service.” Avianca is the national airline of Colombia.

The cocaine was found on Flight 768 from Bogota, which carried 2,000 boxes of assorted flowers, 30 of them listed as containing red roses, Sheehan said.

Placed in 8 Boxes

Eight of the rose boxes were packed with cocaine, he said.

“All 2,000 boxes were checked. Each of the eight boxes weighed about twice as much as a normal box, which should weigh about 30 pounds,” Sheehan said. No arrests were made.

The carrier’s Boeing 747 was seized at Miami International Airport to ensure payment of fines levied for Saturday’s cache. Avianca must pay $16,000 for each pound of cocaine or its plane could be auctioned off, Sheehan said. He said the airline has paid its past fines and received its planes back. A fine for 490 pounds would total $7.8 million.

Avianca offices in Miami were closed, and its airport agents said company officials were not available for comment.

Including Saturday’s find, Customs Service agents have turned up a total of about 5,000 pounds of cocaine on Avianca flights, often hidden in such perishable shipments as flowers or food.

Other recent smuggling discoveries here on Avianca jets include 132 pounds of cocaine hidden in a Valentine’s Day shipment of roses and a March 27 find of 35.8 pounds.

Besides seizing the jet, Sheehan said that Customs Service agents also confiscated the 22 real boxes of red roses and sent them to Baptist Hospital in Miami.

“We hope that some of the patients in the hospital are able to enjoy them,” he said.