JetBlue flight attendant smuggled heroin disguised as chocolate

A JetBlue flight attendant smuggled heroin, which was meant to resemble chocolate, under her uniform during a trip from Colombia to Orlando, Florida, federal agents say.

Customs officers made the discovery last Friday afternoon when they began screening passengers and employees exiting a JetBlue flight from Bogota to Orlando International Airport.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Carla Michelle Alvarado told customs officers during a screening that she hid items in a garment under her flight-attendant uniform.

Officers found hard, oval-shaped pellets that looked like chocolate. But they were really about 940 grams of heroin, the criminal complaint said.

Alvarado told agents she was given the drugs in Colombia and was being paid US$10,000 to deliver the heroin to Jorge Luis Alomar, an acquaintance in Orlando. She agreed to help agents with their investigation and complete the delivery.

Alvarado and Alomar agreed to meet at a restaurant near the airport on Saturday morning to hand off the supposed drugs.

When Alomar arrived at the restaurant and accepted what he thought was a bag of heroin, agents arrested him and Alvarado. Alomar told agents he co-ordinated heroin shipments from a source in Bogota and admitted he asked Alvarado for help in moving the drugs.

The two were each arrested on a charge of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance,