Agents question Venezuelan pilots in cash-smuggling case

Santo Domingo.- The National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) investigates two Venezuelan pilots who would’ve flown to their country four people who had taped to their bodies US$165,715 in cash, seized by agents at El Higüero (Isabela) International Airport.

The pilots Ricardo Carpio and Juan Ignacio Rivas were arrested Tuesday afternoon at La Romana Airport, where they landed from El Higüero.

Rivas and Carpio picked up Ronald Alexander Black, Alexander Enrique Leal, José Da Lavaninha, Fernando Fernandez and Maria Fernanda Freites, all Venezuelans at El Higüero, to fly then to La Maiquetia International Airport, with the strips of cash taped to their bodies.

In a statement DNCD spokesman Roberto Lebron said the money was seized by the DNCD, Customs and Airport Security agents upon landing at La Romana, where they filed a flight plan to St. Martin.

The pilots arrived in a C650 aircraft registry N95HG, from Maracaibo Airport.