Cocaine found in nose cone of American Airlines jet: police

31 January 2017 - 12:00 By REUTERS
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Image: Gallo Images/iStockphoto

An airline maintenance worker in Oklahoma found 14 kg of cocaine in the nose cone of an American Airlines jet after it arrived from Colombia, police said on Monday.

Seven bricks of the drug, with a street value of at least $200,000 (R2,696,600.00), were discovered on Sunday night at the carrier's maintenance base in Tulsa, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post.

"A technician went to check the electronics bay ... and some of the insulation looked new. He moved it and saw one of the bricks," the sheriff said.

The flight, a Boeing 757, originated in Bogota, and landed in Miami. It was sent on to Tulsa for maintenance checks because the base in Miami was too busy, the sheriff said.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating the incident, the sheriff said.

No one from the airline was immediately available for comment.

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