Two Detroit men have been charged after more than 44 pounds of the potent opioid fentanyl was seized at Midway Airport earlier this week.
Jamire Hollingshed and Robert Lewis were arrested after agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration learned they were planning to fly into Midway on May 2. The two had “previously traveled from Los Angeles to Chicago in possession of illicit narcotics,” the DEA said in a statement.
After Holingshed and Lewis landed, authorities had a K9 team check their bags, the DEA said.
The search indicated the presence of narcotics in each bag, and authorities found 10 “bricked-shaped objects” later identified as fentanyl hidden inside pant legs and sweaters in each bag, officials said.
Hollingshed, 26, and Lewis, 24, denied knowing each other or anything about the fentanyl, officials said.
Hollingshed later said someone was paying him to deliver the bag to someone in Chicago, but he didn’t know who was paying him or who he was supposed to give the fentanyl to when he arrived, prosecutors say.
Bail for each man was set at $1,555,500.
