By Sofia Andrade
Two sisters allegedly smuggled close to 5 kilograms of cocaine in their luggage last month while taking a week-long cruise from Miami through Mexico and the Caribbean, a report from a federal investigator says.
According to a criminal complaint filed by a US Department of Homeland Security special agent, the sisters had arrived in the Port of Miami on July 23 after travelling on an MSC Seascape cruise that began a week earlier.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers boarded the MSC cruise to conduct an "enforcement operation" after the ship arrived from Cozumel, Mexico, with stops in Grand Cayman, Jamaica and the Bahamas.
After finding the two sisters in their shared cabin, CBP officers asked the women to bring their belongings to a "secondary inspection." The complaint does not specify the reason for that inspection.
When the sisters exited the cabin, the criminal complaint says, a drug dog law enforcement had brought on board "alerted to the odour of narcotics" in one of the sister's suitcases.
After the sisters claimed ownership of their belongings via Customs declarations forms at the secondary inspection area, CBP officers separated and searched the women and their luggage.
According to court documents, Schneeka Parker and Takeia Herder have been charged with conspiracy to import a controlled substance and importation of a controlled substance. A sealed indictment was entered into the docket.
Simon Patrick Dray, Parker's attorney listed in court documents, confirmed the charges to The Washington Post and said his client will be entering a plea of not guilty.
An attorney listed for Herder did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Both women have an arraignment scheduled for Aug. 14.
The US attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida, where the case is ongoing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A representative for CBP declined to comment on the investigation. NBC affiliate WFLA and Insider first reported on the allegations against the sisters.
Each sister was carrying a "dark-coloured Samsonite backpack" inside their respective luggage, the complaint affidavit says.
Inside each backpack CBP officers found an "anomaly sewed inside the lining." Within the lining of the two bags, they discovered a total of four "rectangular foam-covered packages" containing a "white powdery substance."
Field testing revealed the powdery substance to be cocaine, the special agent's report says.
The cocaine weighed 4.75 kilograms in total. In the complaint, special agent Summer Louis estimated each kilogram to be worth between $15,000 (about R270,000) and $40,000, depending on its purity and where it would be sold, which would put the value of the drugs somewhere between $71,250 and $190,000.
MSC Cruises did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Port of Miami.