CARACAS, Venezuela: A U.S. citizen, two Mexicans and a Congolese have been charged along with six Venezuelan suspects for attempting to traffic more than 2 metric tons (2.2 U.S. tons) of cocaine through a Venezuelan airport, the government said Saturday.
Robert Charles Gagnon, identified as an American; Mexicans Carlos Gaona Salas and Jose Fernando Acosta; and Georges Masudi from the Democratic Republic of Congo are being held at a jail in Margarita Island, the Public Ministry said in a statement.
The Venezuelan suspects — an airport employee and five officers from the division of investigative police — are being held at the same location, it said.
Police on June 9 arrested the gang as it loaded 2 metric tons (2.2 U.S. tons) of cocaine bound for Africa onto a private plane at the international airport on Margarita Island, a popular tourist destination.
Interior Minister Pedro Carreno said that Masudi had presented diplomatic credentials and claimed as he was arrested to be a relative the Congolese President Joseph Kabila. But Kabila’s spokesman, Theodore Mogalo, denied he was a relative.
A judge has ordered the suspects’ bank accounts and other holdings to be frozen, the statement said.
Prosecutors also have seized evidence from the bust, including the aircraft, two vehicles and cash — U.S. dollars, euros, Colombian and Mexican pesos, and Congolese francs — totaling about US$22,000 (€16,500).
