A Drug Ring at Kennedy Is Under U. S. Investigation

A special grand jury in Brooklyn is investigating possible corruption involving people working at Kennedy International Airport, including United States Customs personnel, in connection with a $20million marijuana smuggling operation originating on the island of Jamaica.

Special agents of the Bureau of Customs arrested Arthur Ferguson, 48, of 171 East 58th Street, Brooklyn, who operates the Id Club at 435 Utica Avenue, and his brother, Dexter, 43, of 1001 President Street, who is employed as a bouncer at the club.

Dexter Ferguson was described as a retired policeman who had been a member of the Washington, D.C., Police Department for 15 years. Arthur Ferguson was said to be the ringleader of the smuggling operation.

A joint investigation by the Bureau of Customs and a narcotics unit headed by Deputy Chief Inspector Jules Sachson of the oity's Police Department was said to have involved employes of the Customs Bureau, the Port Authority, airline personnel, baggage handlers and suspected couriers.

“The ramifications of this are much larger than what appear in this case,” said a Federal source who refused to be identified.

The complaint filed with United States Magistrate Max Schiffman charged that Mrs. Porter “made arrangements for the smuggling of marijuana into the United States from Jamaica.”

She was said to have assisted couriers carrying the marijuana packed in suitcases, which weighed as much as 55 pounds, through customs. The couriers, mostly women, were described as former Jamaicans now living in New York who had been recruited to make trips to the island to pick up marijuana.

The couriers were said to have been provided with plane tickets and hotel accommodations in Jamaica. Customs agents said they had been paid off with marijuana.

The complaint covered the period from Sept. 1, 1971, ,to Feb. 29, 1972. But agents said that the conspiracy had been in existence since 1968 and that at least 25 tons of marijuana have been imported, into the metropolitan area in this manner.

Conspiracy Cracked

The alleged conspiracy was cracked, Federal authorities said, with the arrest last Dec. 29 of Michael Anthony Anderson, 24, a sheetmetal worker who lives at 1420. Brooklyn Avenue.

Mr. Anderson, who was reported to be cooperating with the authorities, arrived at Kennedy from Jamaica on Dec. 21 with three suitcases filled with marijuna. When the party who was supposed to clear him through customs failed to show upi he abandoned the suitcases and letf the terminal, agents said.

The suitcases were traced to hlm, however, according to Federal sources. They said that he had made statements to them, disclosing that he had smuggled a quantity of the drug into Haiti from Jamaica last fall, then into Kennedy.

It was not made clear immediately whether other shipments of the drug had been smuggled through Newark or La Guardia Airports.

The complaint disclosed also that wiretaps on the phones of the Ferguson brothers from Feb. 4 to Feb. 29 had implicated Mrs. Porter.

The wiretaps indicated that she “was in frequent contact with the Fergusons and aided them in attempting to make arrangements for the smuggling of quantities of marijuana into the United States from Jamaica,” the complaint said. Between 600 and 800 pounds of marijuana were smuggled every week, according to authorities.

Magistrate Schiffman held the Fergusons in $25,000 bail each and freed Mrs. Porter on $10,000 personal bond for a hearing on March 15. Mr. Anderson had been released in $5,000 personal bond.