Woman arrested at Bradley International Airport with 5 kilos of cocaine wins release

May 14—A woman who was arrested Saturday at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks after picking up a checked bag containing more than 5 kilograms of cocaine was ordered released Thursday on $100,000 bond.

Hecmarieliz Cruz-Acevedo, 22, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, has been charged in a federal criminal complaint with possession of 5 kilograms or more of cocaine with the intent to distribute it.

She was held without bond from the time of her arrest Saturday until U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas O. Farrish approved her release on $100,000 bond at a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Hartford, denying a motion by federal prosecutors to continue her detention. But online court records indicate that Cruz-Acevedo will stay in custody until the judge approves travel arrangements.

The investigation that led to Cruz-Acevedo's arrest started Saturday at the San Juan, Puerto Rico, Airport, when she submitted her bag for a mandatory inspection by a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector.

An electronic scan of the bag appeared to show five rectangular objects consistent with narcotics packaging, according to an affidavit by Special Agent Geoffrey Goodwin of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm of the federal Department of Homeland Security.

Efforts to intercept Cruz-Acevedo before she boarded the flight were unsuccessful, the agent reported. Knowing that Bradley Airport was Cruz-Acevedo's ultimate destination, officials in Puerto Rico sent a copy of the electronic image of the bag to the Homeland Security Investigations office in Hartford.

The federal investigators and state police then set up surveillance at Bradley and watched Cruz-Acevedo get off the plane and walk to the baggage claim area.

When the bag arrived at the baggage claim handling area, officials had it checked by a drug sniffing dog, who gave "a positive alert to the presence of narcotics," according to the agent.

The bag was put on the baggage claim belt around 11:41 p.m., and Goodwin reported that he watched Cruz-Acevedo take it off the belt, appearing to check the tag as she did so.

As she walked toward the terminal exit, Goodwin approached her and asked her to come speak with him. With the aid of a Spanish-speaking state police sergeant, he told her that a dog had alerted to the presence of something in her bag.

He reported that he asked her permission to search the bag, to which she replied that he could search it, but it wasn't hers.

She continued to maintain that the bag wasn't hers, even though it bore a tag reading, "CRUZ/ACEVEDO/H," according to the agent. She said her bag was gray, not green, he reported.

Law enforcement officers then searched the bag, which contained a plastic-wrapped bundle that, in turn, contained five parcels wrapped in carbon paper.

An officer probed one of the packages and found a white powdery substance that field tested positive for the presence of cocaine, the agent reported.

One of the packages weighed about 1,150 grams, a little more than a kilogram, and the others were similarly sized, according to the agent.

Under federal law, possession of more than 5 kilograms of cocaine with the intent to distribute it carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life.

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