Customs: Ex-baseball prospect arrested

A former Tampa Bay Rays baseball prospect was arrested last week at Kennedy Airport attempting to smuggle more than 6 pounds of cocaine into the country, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Wednesday.

Officials said Cristian Vasquez Martinez, 21, had arrived at the airport on June 29 on a flight from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, when agents found the cocaine in four pairs of sneakers he was carrying.

Customs officials said Martinez was stopped after agents found the sneakers to be "unusually heavy." Officials said an investigation found cocaine had been concealed in the soles. The drugs had a street value of more than $138,000, officials said.

Officials said the visa information Martinez carried indicated he was a prospect with the Rays, but further investigation found he had been released by the team.

Martinez, known as simply Cristian Vasquez to the Rays organization, had been a part of the team but was returned to the Dominican Republic and released last month, Carli Todd, a spokeswoman for the Rays said in an email.

The team begins a four-game series against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Thursday evening.