Woman caught with cocaine bricks inside duty-free alcohol boxes at Boston's Logan Airport, prosecutors say

A New York woman was caught at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts last month carrying 12 bricks of cocaine into the country inside duty-free boxes of alcohol, federal prosecutors say.

U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley says 24-year-old Stacey Medina Guzman of Corona, N.Y. arrived in Boston via a JetBlue flight from Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic on Feb. 4. While at the airport's checkpoint for international arrivals, Foley said a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Patrol K-9 detected narcotics in Medina Guzman's duty-free bag. "Duty-free" shops at airports sell items that are exempt from local and national taxes.

"A search of the bag allegedly revealed that the two boxes packaged as Chivas Regal alcohol had been resealed with glue," Foley's office said in a statement. "When cut open, the boxes allegedly contained 12 bricks of cocaine weighing approximately eight kilograms."

A grand jury indicted Medina Guzman on charges of importation of five kilograms or more of cocaine, possession with the intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, Foley said. She will appear in Boston federal court at a later date.

Foley and investigators with the Department of Homeland Security said the Massachusetts State Police provided "valuable assistance in the case." If convicted, each charge Medina Guzman faces carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a fine of up to $10 million.