HAARLEM--Three KLM engineers working in two hangars at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and four other suspects were sentenced for trying to smuggle cocaine from the former Netherlands Antilles. The merchandise was concealed in hidden compartments in airplanes, in 2013 and 2014.
The suspects received prison sentences of between one year and two years and six months, with one case of 240 hours of community service and a suspended prison sentence, Het Parool newspaper reported.
The main suspect in this case is 57-year-old John R. who worked in hangar 14 in Schiphol-Oost. He coordinated the drug smuggling with an accomplice outside the airport, two engineers in hangar 11, contacts in the Antilles and a few of his relatives, according to the newspaper.
Using a secret code and copies or photos of maintenance schedules, the KLM engineers told their Antillean contacts in which planes to hide the drugs. The engineers would then have plenty of time to remove the packages of cocaine from the airplanes undisturbed while doing maintenance.
But every time they tried to get the drug smuggling going, something went wrong. Either there were too many witnesses or their contacts in the islands complained about lack of money.
The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, Customs and the Tax Office’s criminal intelligence service FIOD easily managed to link the aircraft with the secret codes, but every time the planes landed without drugs on board. By the time the suspects were arrested in 2014, not one single cocaine shipment was made.
