US Embassy staffer indicted for stashing cocaine in duty-free items before smuggling it into New York

A US embassy staffer in the Dominican Republic was indicted for smuggling cocaine into New York by stashing the drugs in duty-free items, including Johnny Walker bottles, Marlboro cigarette cartons, and Choco Pie snack boxes, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Jairo Eliezer Arias Caceres, 35, was extradited from the Dominican Republic to the Big Apple, where he is charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the US, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

The alleged coke mule ran the months-long scheme between April and December 2023 while employed as a security officer at the embassy’s Santo Domingo location, a position he held for seven years.

“While Arias Caceres was supposed to be protecting our diplomats and embassy staff from danger, he was allegedly busy endangering New Yorkers by pumping illegal drugs into our community,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.

“Abuse of a position of national trust to traffic in deadly narcotics shocks the sensibilities of New Yorkers and the women and men of our office are committed to bringing those who abuse that trust to justice.”

Arias Caceres enlisted couriers to sneak the cocaine into New York airports by hiding it in various tax-free loot purchased at the Santo Domingo Airport before takeoff, prosecutors said.

Photos showed the illicit powder tightly wrapped into blocks and stuffed into three Johnny Walker Gold Reserve bottle boxes, four Marlboro Red 100-pack cigarette cartons, and four large chocolate treat containers.

The accused trafficker, a former security guard at the Dominican Republic airport for seven years before joining the embassy in 2018, collaborated with former coworkers who supplied the bricks of cocaine to runners before their flights, which he also arranged and financed, prosecutors said.

Arias Caceres faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life behind bars if convicted.

“This investigation successfully dismantled a sophisticated trafficking network responsible for moving dangerous narcotics from the Dominican Republic into the United States,” said Homeland Security Investigations Newark Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy.

“HSI remains committed to protecting the American public by targeting and disrupting the transnational criminal organizations that seek to bring illicit drugs into our communities.”