Woman Charged with Drug Smuggling at Boston Logan

A 21-year-old woman is expected to be arraigned today on charges that she swallowed 50 pellets of cocaine and boarded a Jet Blue flight from the Dominican Republic to Boston's Logan Airport, Massachusetts state police said.

Luisa Gill, of Union City, New Jersey, was being questioned at Customs in Terminal E about her quick trip to the Dominican Republic at around 8 p.m. Saturday night when she began to "behave suspiciously,'' state police spokesman David Procopio told AOL Travel News.

The customs agents continued to question her until she admitted to swallowing the pound of cocaine.

"Customs was interviewing her and they didn't like her answers. It seemed very suspicious,'' Procopio said. "After a few minutes she broke down and admitted that she had swallowed the cocaine. She confessed to being a drug mule.''

State Police were called and Gill was arrested at the airport Saturday night. She was then transported to Massachusetts General Hospital where the drugs were extracted. The cocaine had been compressed into tiny, tightly-wrapped packages, police said.

She was then transported to the Logan Airport Troop F state police barracks where she will be held until her arraignment this afternoon in an East Boston courtroom on charges of trafficking in a Class B substance over 200 grams. Gill will be assigned an attorney at her arraignment, court officials said.

The cocaine had an estimated street value of $50,000, Procopio said.

Last month an American from California was arrested after police found 8.82 pounds of opium in his luggage. Customs officials said his bags were searched after being flagged as "unusually heavy."

"We remain vigilant to the potential that drug mules are moving through our airports,'' Procopio said.