FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Customs officers doing a pat-down on a man arriving on a flight to South Florida from Colombia couldn’t help but notice a “large anomaly” in his “groin area,” according to court documents. Agents said it turned out to be nearly 2 kilograms of cocaine.
They say it’s not the first time he’s been caught trafficking the drug.
Investigators said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers made the discovery at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after Kristopher Marco, 53, of New Castle, Delaware, arrived on Spirit Airlines Flight 946 from Cartagena on Monday.
A federal criminal complaint states that CBP officers manning the inspection area and looking through Marco’s luggage first found tablets in a “Centrum vitamin bottle” that he claimed were HIV pills.
According to the complaint, “multiple Treasury Enforcement Communication System records” on Marco, plus his “nervous behavior,” led them to conduct a pat-down.
Officers “reported a large anomaly felt in (his) groin area,” it states. When asked what he had, authorities said Marco responded matter-of-factly: “Cocaine.”
They said it was was 1.75 kilograms, in fact. According to the complaint, the drugs were in a “large cylindrical-shaped package wrapped in pink cellophane.”
According to the complaint, Marco wouldn’t tell Homeland Security Investigations agents where the cocaine came from or where it was supposed to go.
They said a records check revealed that Marco ― under his former name, Christopher Allen Gransby ― had been arrested by authorities in Nicaragua on Sept. 10, 2024, for trying to enter the country from Costa Rica with 7.69 kilograms of cocaine.
Nicaraguan National Police said he was carrying the bricks of coke in a backpack. About five months after his arrest in Central America, the Virginia-born Gransby changed his name in Delaware to Kristopher Michael Cain Marco.
Records show Marco was set to appear in Fort Lauderdale federal court for a hearing on Tuesday morning as he faces a charge of possession with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine. They show that prosecutors are seeking pre-trial detention.
In the meantime, Marco was being held in the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail facility on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.
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