NEW YORK, USA – United States law enforcement authorities have charged a Barbadian airline employee and his mother with drug trafficking and related charges.

A superseding indictment returned by a US federal grand jury in Brooklyn charges former American Airlines baggage handler Barbadian Victor Bourne, 35, and former American Airlines dispatching crew chief Miguel Bozza, 48, with drug trafficking and other charges.

The superseding indictment also charges Maria Alleyne, 51, the mother of Victor Bourne, with structuring the purchase of money orders to avoid financial reporting requirements.

Bourne is also charged with conducting a continuing criminal enterprise; Bourne and Bozza are charged with importing and distributing narcotics, as well as conspiring to do so, and wire fraud conspiracy.

In addition, Bourne and Alleyne are charged with conspiring to avoid financial reporting requirements through structured financial transactions.

If convicted of all charges, Bourne and Bozza face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, and Alleyne faces a maximum of five years imprisonment.

US authorities said they are also seeking forfeiture of “Bourne organisation’s criminally derived proceeds”.

According to the indictment and other court filings, between 2000 and 2009, Victor Bourne, was “the leader of a drug trafficking organisation, the Bourne Organisation, that relied on corrupt employees of commercial airlines, including American Airlines, at domestic and international ports of entry to smuggle drugs into the United States and throughout the Caribbean”.

“As part of its criminal activity, the Bourne Organisation allegedly arranged for cocaine to be stowed aboard American Airlines flights leaving the Caribbean for John F Kennedy International Airport,” it added.

The indictment charges that “the organisation then paid dispatching crew chiefs at American Airlines, including Miguel Bozza, to assign crews of baggage handlers, who were also paid by the Bourne Organisation, to retrieve the cocaine upon arrival”.

As part of the government’s investigation, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers said they seized multiple shipments of cocaine from American Airlines passenger flights.

According to court filing by US authorities, the “Bourne Organisation” was responsible for the importation more than 150 kilogrammes of cocaine into the US.

The indictment further alleges that the organisation was responsible for the shipment of more than 5,000 kilogrammes of marijuana aboard cargo vessels, “in part through a Brooklyn footwear business, owned by Maria Alleyne, to businesses in Barbados”.

“Bourne and Alleyne structured the purchase of US Postal Service money orders to avoid federal reporting requirements, and, thereby, enabled the organisation to transfer clandestinely its drug proceeds,” the indictment says.

“These charges are another example our continuing pursuit of international drug traffickers through a global enforcement strategy,” said Loretta E Lynch, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

“We will continue to investigate and prosecute workers at our ports of entry who threaten the integrity of our borders,” she added.

James T Hayes, Jr, special agent in charge of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York, said the use of commercial aircraft to smuggle narcotics creates a “serious threat to both national security and public safety”.