By Caribbean 360 From St Lucia News

CARIBBEAN 360 – A third female employee of Cayman Airways has been arrested in connection with the alleged smuggling of Cubans into the United States.

The 30-year-old woman was held on suspicion of human smuggling on Monday, four days after two of her co-workers, aged 29 and 33, were taken into police custody on similar grounds, said a statement issued by the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) late Monday.

The police had previously disclosed that the under the alleged trafficking scheme, foreign nationals who were legitimately in the Cayman Islands were given false identifies to get into the US.

“The investigation is complex and involves cooperation with other foreign and local partner agencies,” the RCIPS added.

It is alleged that the three women were being paid to facilitate Cubans’ entry to the US where, under the administration’s wet-foot, dry-foot policy, they would be given preferential treatment and automatically get citizenship after a year.

Cayman Airways said had initiated the investigation, identifying and reporting to the authorities “certain passenger movements which appeared to have been contrary to Immigration regulations”.

“Since that time, Cayman Airways has been fully cooperative and transparent with the relevant authorities as they conducted their investigations,” it added.

The airline employees have been suspended pending investigations.

Human smuggling in the Cayman Islands carries a punishment of up to seven years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

IMAGE: Cayman_Airways_Boeing_737-300_OJEV

For more on this story go to: http://www.stlucianewsonline.com/caribbean-cayman-airways-employees-suspected-of-smuggling-cubans-into-the-us/#sthash.51AZsQ7y.dpuf

See related iNews Cayman story published August 10 2015 “Cayman Islands: FURTHER UPDATE – Third woman arrested – Two women arrested on suspicion of human smuggling – UPDATED” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/cayman-islands-two-women-arrested-on-suspicion-of-human-smuggling/