CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Venezuela's Public Ministry has charged an Aeroméxico security official and four national guard members with conspiracy to traffic more than half a ton of cocaine.
Aeroméxico official Robert Fermín, and Bolivarian National Guard First Lt. Higmar Vivas, along with Sgts. Jimmy Useche, Elkin Fuentes and Víctor Molina, were arrested after about 1,300 pounds of cocaine was seized at the Mexico City International Airport on June 16.
The public ministry also charged 11 others in connection to the same case. The plane departed from the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, near downtown Caracas.
The public ministry said Venezuelan prosecutors "respectively charged 16 people for alleged offenses of illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, and conspiracy to commit a crime."
