TSA and Airport Employees allegedly Smuggled 20 Tons of Cocaine Over 18 Years

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SOURCE: NEWSWEEK

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/tsa-puerto-rico-airport-cocaine-smuggling-556342

by: Max Kutner


A dozen current and former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and airport employees are facing charges related to an alleged cocaine-smuggling operation going back almost two decades. A federal grand jury in Puerto Rico indicted the defendants on February 8, and the U.S. Department of Justice announced the news on Monday.

The defendants allegedly transported cocaine-filled suitcases through security at the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Between 1998 and 2016, approximately 20 tons of cocaine made it through as part of the racket, according to the announcement. Drug mules would drop off the cocaine-filled suitcases at the airline check-in counter, the Justice Department said. Then one of the defendants would allegedly pick up the suitcases from the counter and put them into X-ray machines.

Another participant in the smuggling operation is believed to have monitored those machines, allowing the suitcases to pass through. A defendant would then allegedly take the suitcases to the airplanes, making sure they continued to avoid detection.

That announcement comes a week after a congressional subcommittee released a report about vulnerabilities in airport security. “At a time when we face increased threats from homegrown radicalization and lone-wolf terrorism, we must ensure that our airport access controls are strong and that we are doing all we can to mitigate the insider threat to aviation security,” Transportation and Protective Security Subcommittee Chairman John Katko said in a statement accompanying the report.

The report found that there are inconsistencies in how airport security officials educate employees and also that a majority of airports lack full employee screening at secure access points

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Guess Who Got Busted for Smuggling 20 Tons of Cocaine Into the US Over an 18 Year Period?
February 14, 2017 | Lily Dane | The Daily Sheeple | 562 views


The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) just busted twelve individuals who were involved in a massive cocaine trafficking operation that lasted nearly two decades.

Oops! Wait – no, that’s not what happened.

Twelve TSA and airport employees who were involved in a massive cocaine trafficking operation that lasted nearly two decades were indicted by a federal grand jury in Puerto Rico on February 8. The current and former employees were charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/guess-who-got-busted-for-smuggling-20-tons-of-cocaine-into-the-us-over-an-18-year-period_022017