£50m of Cocaine seized on private Jet

[specialbrew]

News from FAB......anyone recognise the aircraft involved?...or the crew?

Five held in £50m cocaine seizure at Farnborough Airport - BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-42873745)

[fairflyer]

First call would be to the handler/FBO at the Bogota end - which one dispatched this flight - Aerosupport, Helistar, Central Charter de Columbia/Signature, Private Flight etc.?

[Richard101]

That photograph on the BBC would seem to indicate Tyrolean Jet Service's GLEX (IE-IEL)

[clareprop]

Bogota to the UK. Hmm...I wonder how that possibly raised a few flags...

[FLEXJET]

http://www.tjs.at/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/BOMBARDIER_GLOBAL_EXPRESS_1_A.pdf



Yes, OE-IEL with the TJS and Swarovski logos on each side of the door.

[what next]

Yes, OE-IEL with the TJS and Swarovski logos on each side of the door.

What a contrast! First 10 hours of luxury inside that plane (including those two Tyrolean cabin attendants) and now 10 years in the Tower of London...

http://www.medievalists.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/schm_dungeon.jpg
Luckily they released the crew. Could have been different in other countries.

[glider12000]

Was certainly interesting being at FAB yesterday. I counted 7 police vehicles in the car park at one point..

[jack11111]

From BBC story"

"The crew of the plane were also questioned but were released without charge."

Crew must have been very convincing.

[FLEXJET]

OE-IEL flew FAB-INN this afternoon.

[galaxy flyer]

Anyone remember the German (Austrian?) crew that left Venezuela sans flight plan and were arrested in Canaries? Evidently, the crew was innocent as some family members wer3 threatened.

GF

[His dudeness]

Yes, I do. The crew spent quite a long time in investigative custody.

[specialbrew]

I'm very surprised the crew were not suspicious about the weight (and number) of bags loaded onboard and the fact hey were in "Colombia".

Maybe they tipped off authorities in the UK prior to their arrival?

[mikemmb]

I'm very surprised the crew were not suspicious about the weight (and number) of bags loaded onboard and the fact hey were in "Colombia".

Maybe they tipped off authorities in the UK prior to their arrival?

........if they did good on them, but they will spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulder!

[specialbrew]

From the BBC.....

Martin and Stephen Neil, aged 48 and 53, from Poole in Dorset, have been charged with importing cocaine.

An Italian man and two Spanish men were also charged with the same offence.

The brothers, from Bournemouth Road in Poole, along with Italian national Alessandro Iembo, 28, and Spanish nationals Victor Franco-Lorenzo, 40, and Jose Ramon Miguelez-Botas, 45, are due to appear at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court later.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said tape-wrapped packages containing the drugs were found in 15 items of luggage taken from the private jet. The seizure was described as one of the largest flown into the UK "for many years".

[CL300]

I'm very surprised the crew were not suspicious about the weight (and number) of bags loaded onboard and the fact hey were in "Colombia".

Maybe they tipped off authorities in the UK prior to their arrival?

15 bags for 5 people... this is a kind of normal load...

I had 42 for one person....

[fairflyer]

Ha, people used to hire that jet hoping they might find a few Swarovski crystals behind the sofa, now it's got some real provenance, could be all sorts stuck in those seats now... charter rate's just gone up

[Fareastdriver]

When General Noriega got the push his personal Super Puma ended up on the North Sea complete with tinted cockpit and cabin windows.
We used to brief the passengers that if they found any little white bags hidden away they were to pass them up to the crew

[x933]

Wonder who the broker was, and if they booked online :E

[Monkey Boy]

What difference would booking online make? I don't know of any brokers who inspect the passenger's luggage before a flight. :ugh:

[sellbydate]

Note that handling is not compulsory in Bogota airport, but presumably Tyrolean, as a well-respected operator, went through one of the three 'proper' FBOs there. Question is, do outbound, public transport, chartered jets have to go through screening there (as they do in Europe over 10 tonnes), if so, clearly the screening staff were paid off by someone there, or it didn't go through any form of screening at all, legitimately. Colombian police should be all over that FBO/handler like a bad rash. If not, then the airport police are in it, the screening staff in it, etc. etc.

[Tinytim]

What difference would booking online make?
Its a JOKE Monkey Boy!!!!!!!!

Ever heard of "lines of Charlie"???!!

If not...you should get out a bit more and chance a walk on the wild side.
������

[twinjetter]

Something humorous to be had I’m sure ref “Class A” airspace....unfortunately my imagination is on check at the mo :)

[Tinytim]

Bit of thread creep.......but heres an excellent tip I learned to deal with some of our more delightful clients who like to use the bathroom surfaces to lay out and then snort lines of coke.
WD40 very lightly applied to a duster and wiped over the surface completely and instantly trashes the drug on contact...
I have never known it fail....

[Warmtoast]

Going back a few years, but was it not the rule that if contraband or drugs were found on an aircraft the aircraft was "seized" by HM Customs and could be sold off - or was it just cars rather than an aircraft?

[CL300]

for private aircrafts, this is a chartered one..

[Chronus]

Doesn`t it make one wonder how a pair of brickies and a kitchen hand happened to find themselves on board a pvte jet long haul from Bogota to Farnborough. So, I suppose the kitchen hand could have some kind of an explanation that he was to give a hand in the galley for the fry up without which brickies cannot work. But I`d guess the brickies had their trowles and a bit of string along with them, so they would not be hard pushed to string a line. So far as the cost is concerned, small change, compared to cost of housing and critical shortage of skilled trades for the building industry. Not long before we will be flying them in choppers between building sites all over the country. Just as we do with North Sea offshore oil gas workers, but much more critical in this instance.

[unmanned_droid]

That is a LOT of marking out chalk dust!

[EESDL]

Brickies - cocaine bricks ?

[sellbydate]

Rough translation from Colombian media:

'....Obviously, both Tyrolean Jet Services, the Austrian company owning the twin-engine, and Central Charter S.A. (the FBO - a Signature Flight Support franchisee) are victims of this network. But it is clear that there were accomplices inside the hangar, "explained an anti-narcotics police officer.

In fact, his officers already established that the search of the aircraft was carried out by a subject who arrived at the hangar, located at entrance 2, interior 1, of the airport, very close to the Puente Aéreo.

The man entered a Kia van with a police jacket that was large and without official badges on the car. In addition, I had a dog that does not correspond to the type and breeds of the canine anti-drug brigade.

And although the hangar has private security - which depends on the Opaín dealer - and is already under investigation, nobody noticed anything strange. The false police facilitated the search of the suitcases full of drugs and streamlined customs procedures and migration. Thanks to this, the five foreigners left for England at 6 o'clock in the afternoon of Sunday, January 28....'