US Longshoremen Charged with Smuggling Cocaine from Panama

United States federal prosecutors brought drug trafficking charges against eight Port of New York and New Jersey longshoremen for receiving 1.3 metric tons of cocaine valued at more than $34 million from Panama destined for New York City.

US attorney Preet Bharara alleges the longshoremen were paid between $50,000 and $100,000 per duffel bag offloaded from the container within a secure area only employees could access.

In addition, investigators discovered a fraudulent trading scheme while carrying out the drug trafficking investigation. One of the longshoreman and 10 others allegedly defrauded investors of $7 million by using social networking sites to artificially inflate the price of stocks and then dump them.

The Port of New York and New Jersey is the third largest in the United States, and Bharara said no one wants to see it return to the days when it was a hub of criminal activity.

The New York Times reports.