Man Who Thought He was Shipping Crystal Meth on Flights Leaving DFW Airport Sentenced

Nelson Pabon was dealing with an imitation substance and the government’s money.

But for a year and a half, the former American Airlines subsidiary crew chief believed he was shipping packages of crystal methamphetamine on flights leaving DFW Airport, and that he was being paid by “the Italians.”

Pabon, who was involved in a narcotics-smuggling ring that attempted to traffic methamphetamine through the DFW Airport, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer to 16 years and 8 months in prison.

Pabon, 48, was the lead defendant in a case in which 10 suspects were indicted. He pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

He was also sentenced to four years of supervised release.

Pabon admitted in a description of stipulated facts that he worked with several people to skirt security at DFW Airport in order to transport drugs on commercial flights.

He told undercover agents that because he received advance notice of narcotic canine baggage sweeps, he was positioned to sneak drugs onto jets in return for cash, according to a press statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Dallas.

Pabon and the other defendants smuggled purported crystal methamphetamine provided by undercover agents onto flights to Newark, New Jersey, on at least six occasions between August 2016 and May 2018.

Seven of the suspects indicted in the case were employees of Envoy, a subsidiary of American Airlines. Two were Spirit Airlines employees.

The suspects agreed to fees between $1,500 and $2,000 to move the artificial methamphetamine in kilogram amounts, according to the indictments.

Beyond Newark, the substance was shipped to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina and Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix.

Pabon was also involved in discussions about transporting a C4 plastic explosive for a fee higher than the narcotics.

“These defendants attempted to subvert the security systems that keep Americans safe in the skies,” U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox wrote in the statement. “Airport and airline workers cannot be allowed to leverage their positions of trust and profit off transporting deadly substances. We must all be insist that every precaution is taken to prevent security breaches of this type.”

Two other defendants in the case, former baggage handlers Ruben Benitez-Matienzo, 46, and Michael Alexis Riviera Vasquez, 22, were sentenced Friday to 45 months and 48 months, respectively.

These are the sentences of the other defendants who were found guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, according to the U.S. attorney’s office:

? Juan Camacho Melendez, 23, was sentenced Thursday to 97 months in prison.

? Cristian David Cruz-Rodriguez, 24, was sentenced in October to 65 months.

? Joshua Israel Pagan Zapata, 22, was sentenced in October to 63 months.

? Domingo Villafane Martinez, 32, was sentenced in August to 27 months.

? Jose Luis Gaston-Rolon, 25, was sentenced in August to 87 months.

? Luis Javier Collazo Rosado, 23, was sentenced in July to 30 months.

? Jean Loui Vargas Malave is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 23.

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