BALTIMORE, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Three employees of the Royal Caribbean cruise line have been charged with smuggling drugs from the Dominican Republic into Baltimore, authorities said.
Two U.S. residents were also arrested Dec. 18 as they allegedly took delivery on heroin and cocaine at a Walmart in Covington, Md., The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday. All five have been charged with conspiring to smuggle drugs.
Gavin Excell, 35, a Jamaican working on the Enchantment of the Seas, was arrested by U.S. Customs agents immediately after the ship docked Dec. 18. Agents said they got a tip from the ship's security officer that he was bringing in drugs.
Federal prosecutors filed a complaint Tuesday alleging that Excell and two kitchen employees -- John Garth and Kishurn Neptune, both 27 -- picked up the drugs in the Dominican Republic Dec. 10. Agents said they saw Garth in the Walmart parking lot, where he got into a GMC Envoy occupied by Loxly Johnson, 48, and Shenika Graves, 34.
Johnson, a Jamaican living legally in the United States, who was driving the vehicle, was pulled over after he left the lot, agents said. He allegedly had $8,000 in cash in his possession, while Graves allegedly had 1.5 pounds of heroin and two-thirds of a pound of cocaine in her purse, in packages wrapped in duct tape.
