By Philip Caulfield / NEW YORK DAILY NEWSFour TSA screeners schemed with drug traffickers to smuggle loads of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana through Los Angeles International airport last year in exchange for cash payments, federal investigators said.
The case against the screeners -- including two who still work for the Transportation Security Administration -- was detailed in a 40-page grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
Feds brought down the crew after a series of undercover stings sparked by the arrest of a suspected drug mule, who botched an attempt to sneak 10 pounds of coke through a checkpoint in February 2011.
TSA screener Joy White, 27, told Duane Eleby to bring the cocaine through her X-ray machine at LAX's Terminal 6, but he instead went to Terminal 5, where another screener saw the drugs in his suit case, according to the indictment.
The smuggling operation continued for another six months -- and in five cases, federal informants posed as the smugglers.
In one case, in June, accused screener John Whitfield, 23, told one smuggler to move out of line so that he would come through his X-ray machine, according to the court documents. Whitfield then allegedly allowed him to pass through with eight pounds of methamphetamine in his bag.
Continue Reading: nydailynews.com
Leave a comment