By admin 
British Airways is literally flying high this month, but not in a good way, as the airline is involved in a second high-profile drug bust within just one week, after an engineer discovered GBP 100k worth of cocaine stashed in an aircraft lavatory.
This follows a raid on another BA flight from Cancun to London Gatwick which I wrote about just two days ago where Mexican federal police grounded a flight and recovered a bunch of drug bricks from the plane.
This isn’t exactly the type of PR an airline needs or wants, especially in such a short period even though the incidents are unrelated, otherwise they could slowly start to rename the airline to British Drugways.
In this case, one single brick of drugs was found on the B777 during regular maintenance.
According to The Sun, the shipment value discovered on the Orlando-London Gatwick flight was ~ 100,000 British Pounds.
COCAINE worth £100,000 was found stashed in a British Airways plane toilet by a service engineer at Gatwick.
The haul was spotted behind a panel while the Boeing was in a hangar for routine checks.
It was uncovered after the jet touched down from Orlando, Florida.
The engineer called police and now Border Force officials and the National Crime Agency are investigating.
Last night, a source said: “This is an astonishing find — and a serious security breach.
“Someone has smuggled it on to the flight so it’s very worrying, and it could potentially have been a more dangerous substance.
“They were hoping to pick it up and recover it in the UK but were undone when the flight went for its service.
“The block had been well hidden for someone to retrieve later.
“Whoever it was got unlucky, because the plane was taken into a hangar for a check-over, like a car’s MoT.
“That’s when the find was made — and it was in a panel behind a bin in the toilet.
“It’s quite likely to have been hidden there by a member of staff of some sort — either a fight attendant or baggage handler or cleaner.
“It’s unlikely to have been a member of the public because they would not have been able to get on the plane to pick it up later.
“Whoever it is, I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes now as they’ve lost something of value to criminals.”
British Airways did not comment because of the police investigation.
But a government spokesperson said: “Those who attempt to smuggle illegal drugs into the UK should be in no doubt Border Force will find them.”
I would be surprised if the crime were actually solved unless fingerprints were left by the criminals, which would mean the smugglers are real amateurs.
But this find definitely burned a proven smuggling route, as I don’t believe for a moment that this was the first and only time that the route was used to transport drugs and that the involved staff had a rather routine business.
Once this method worked, smugglers usually used it again and again until either the courier or the route was burned, and it was no longer safe, considering the risk of losing the merchandise.
The pilot in this case was fired from BA, but a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about him having regained his license and is now flying for a UK-based cargo company.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, there has been another case of a British Airways flight being involved in a drug smuggling operation, and once again, the merchandise was discovered/confiscated by the authorities.
While it’s bad PR for the airline, the realities of the drug trade are really sad, as it causes lots of victims on either side of the fence. The high demand drives the supply, and this vicious circle leads to ongoing smuggling operations in various ways, including by using commercial aircraft to stow packages with the help of corrupt airport and airline employees.
Keep in mind, though, if they can stow drugs without them being discovered, it would be just as easy to stow explosives, and that’s a very scary thought. Airlines and airports need to protect aircraft better and also screen employees more diligently.