Opa-locka, Fla. – Two U.S. Virgin Islands police officers, along with four others, have been charged with drug trafficking after more than 700 pounds of cocaine were found as the officers and two other men landed on a private plane at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport.
Federal agents said Teshawn Adams, 26, and Shakim Mike, 29, U.S. Virgin Islands police officers, and two others, traveled to Miami on a private passenger flight from St. Thomas on Tuesday. They were detained after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers discovered the cocaine, packaged as 294 individually plastic-wrapped bricks during a scan of luggage at the airport upon the plane’s arrival.
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Criminal complaints filed by the United States Attorney of the Southern District of Florida said CBP officers saw the bricks on the screen of the X-ray machine and that the weight totaled 328.79 kilograms, or just under 725 pounds.
Roystin David, 28, and Maleek Leonard, 27, from St. Thomas were traveling with the two officers on the private passenger jet.
Tevon Adams, Teshawn’s twin brother, of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Anthon Berkeley, 26, of Orlando, Fla., were waiting to transport the men and the cocaine from the Opa Locka Airport to other areas of Florida, alleges the complaint.
The Virgin Islands Daily News reported that the island’s police commissioner Trevor Velinor said that the officers had passed standard background checks. “There was no indication by VIPD that they were involved in any illegal activities,” Velinor said.
The newspaper stated that the men graduated from the V.I. Police Academy in 2016 and both served with the Special Operations Bureau.
According to the newspaper, the affidavit said that Mike fled the airport as the officers were inspecting the baggage. David, a tax return controller with the V.I. Internal Revenue Bureau, who was also aboard, said that he did not know the bags contained cocaine, but he admitted that he helped carry and load the bags into the plane at St. Thomas.