A veteran Avianca flight attendant is facing a federal smuggling charge after agents at Miami International Airport say they found a gold chain, painted silver to disguise its true value, hanging around his neck. Jhon Alexander Herrera Giraldo, 40, told customs officers he had nothing to declare when he landed on Avianca flight AV06 from Bogotá on August 5, but a pat-down told a different story.
Federal agents noticed the silver-colored chain during that pat-down, according to the criminal complaint detailed by WPLG Local 10. The seized chain weighed roughly 240 grams and turned out to be high-purity gold consistent with merchandise meant for sale or other commercial use, not a personal keepsake. Herrera Giraldo initially claimed the chain was platinum before admitting it wasn't even his.
A Story That Fell Apart Under Questioning
According to federal authorities, Herrera Giraldo eventually admitted he had lied about the chain because he was scared. He told investigators the chain was actually painted silver specifically to conceal that it was gold, and that he had made three similar trips carrying chains into the United States over the past four months. For each trip, he said, he received somewhere between $200 and $300.
Herrera Giraldo has worked for Avianca for nearly two decades, per the report from the station. Investigators say a man identified only as Leandro handed him the chain in Colombia and instructed him to deliver it the next day to someone known as Lalo in South Florida. The identities of both Leandro and Lalo remain unknown, and it is unclear whether other airline staff were involved in the scheme.
Federal Charge Carries Steep Penalties
Herrera Giraldo now faces a federal charge in South Florida for smuggling goods into the United States, a crime that under federal statute can carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years along with fines reaching $250,000, according to a report from Every CRS Report. Under Customs and Border Protection rules, all gold and other commercial merchandise brought into the country must be declared regardless of whether duties are owed, and goods valued above $2,500 typically require formal customs entries and security bonds, according to guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Herrera Giraldo remained held at a federal detention center in downtown Miami, and his court file listed no upcoming hearings as of the report. Local 10 News said it had contacted Avianca seeking comment on his arrest.
Why Colombian Gold Keeps Turning Up at MIA
This case fits a pattern federal agents in South Florida have seen for years. In October 2021, an American Airlines flight attendant was arrested in Argentina after security found more than 2,200 grams of gold, Rolex watches, luxury jewelry and over $11,000 in cash hidden in her luggage on a flight bound for Miami — with several jewelry pieces painted black to disguise their true metal content, as reported by PYOK. More recently, federal agents at Miami International Airport arrested a LATAM Airlines passenger arriving from Ecuador in March 2025 after discovering $300,000 worth of hidden, disguised gold he had failed to report, according to Simple Flying.
Miami has long served as the primary U.S. trans-shipment hub for South American gold, historically processing billions of dollars in gold annually from countries including Colombia and Mexico before much of it is re-exported to Europe for refining, per a report from Fox News. That role has also made the airport a target for theft: in June 2013, $625,000 worth of gold bars shipped from Ecuador vanished from a luggage cart at Miami International Airport shortly after being unloaded from a commercial flight, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Illegal Mining Fuels the Smuggling Pipeline
Illegal gold mining is Colombia's most profitable illicit industry, and the United States is the number-one destination for smuggled Colombian gold, per Business Insider. Reports from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Organization of American States estimate that roughly 66% to 70% of gold mined in Colombia comes from illegal or informal operations, generating billions in illicit revenue that in some regions equals or exceeds drug trafficking profits. A 2024 analysis from the Center for Climate Crime Analysis put the figure even higher, estimating that 85% of Colombia's gold exports now originate from illegal extraction, driven by gold prices that have topped $2,600 an ounce and by organized crime groups expanding from narcotics into mining.
Federal prosecutors in South Florida have brought similar cases before. In September 2019, two Venezuelan men were charged with smuggling $5 million worth of gold bars into Florida after Customs and Border Protection officers at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport found 230 pounds of undeclared gold hidden beneath a metal panel in the nose compartment of a private plane arriving from Venezuela, according to CBS Miami. Weeks earlier, in October 2019, four American Airlines flight attendants were arrested at Miami International Airport and charged with money laundering after authorities said they were illegally transporting more than $22,600 in undeclared cash from Chile, per Business Insider. Whether Homeland Security Investigations will expand the case against Herrera Giraldo into a broader conspiracy or money laundering probe, and who exactly Leandro and Lalo are, remain open questions in the investigation.
