Crew members on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship attempted to smuggle heroin and cocaine into Baltimore from the Dominican Republic, according to criminal complaints filed by US officials on Tuesday.
According to accounts by agents of the Department of Homeland Security filed in federal court, three employees of the cruise line — 35-year-old Gavin Excell and 27-year-olds John Swart Garth and Kishurn Neptune — obtained narcotics in the Dominican Republic during a stop of the Royal Caribbean’s “Enchantment of the Seas” trip in mid-December.
When the ship arrived in Baltimore on Dec. 18, the documents state, the three men had planned to deliver those drugs at the Port Covington Wal-Mart, near the cruise terminal, to Loxly Johnson and Shenika Nicole Graves, who appear to have driven to Baltimore from Virginia.
Johnson, also known as Desmond Williams, is a Jamaican citizen and a legal permanent resident of the United States, according to the documents. He, Excell and Graves were indicted by a grand jury on charges of conspiring to import drugs into the country.
Customs officials were tipped off by Elhadad David, a ship security officer for Royal Caribbean.
Agents searched Excell when the cruise ship arrived in Baltimore on Dec. 18. According to the documents, agents said they found 700 grams of heroin and 300 grams of cocaine hidden in his waistband and shoes. The documents state that Excell told agents he had picked up the drugs from a Jamaican man in the Dominican Republic with Garth and a man later identified as Neptune, who both worked in the galley of the cruise ship.
That same day, agents said they saw Johnson and Graves in a black GMC Envoy with Virginia plates outside the Wal-Mart, and saw Garth entering and exiting the vehicle. When questioned later, Garth told officers that he had been paid $4,000 to deliver three packages of narcotics to Graves and Johnson, the documents state.
Shortly after Johnson left the Walmart, customs agents stopped him on the 1300 block of Hanover St. in Baltimore and searched the Envoy and found $8,000 in cash. Other agents approached Graves, who was still inside the Wal-Mart, and found 700 grams of heroin and 300 grams of cocaine in her purse, according to documents.
Johnson is being represented by a federal public defender.
Thomas L. Crowe, Graves’ attorney, said his client is a “solid citizen” and pleaded not guilty to the charges last week.
“She has absolutely no criminal record,” Crowe said. “She’s never been accused of being involved in anything like this. She maintains her innocence.”
Graves was released and promised to appear later to answer the charges, Crowe said, and is now back home with family in Virginia.
Source:The Baltimore Sun
