TSA seizes 70 pounds of cocaine after flight attendant flees
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lighted pylons add color to the Century Boulevard entrance to Los Angeles International Airport.
LOS ANGELES » Federal authorities are searching for a flight attendant they say bolted from a security screening at Los Angeles International Airport, leaving behind about 70 pounds of cocaine stashed in her luggage.
Transportation Security Administration officers stopped the woman at random Friday, and she remained at large Monday, said Special Agent Timothy Massino with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The flight attendant was sent to a secondary screening area, but she quickly dropped her bag, ditched a pair of Gucci heels and fled barefoot downward in an upward-moving escalator, said Marshall McClain, president of the union representing LAX airport police officers.
Police were called to investigate an unattended bag and later uncovered 69 pounds of cocaine inside, McClain said.
McClain expressed concern that officers were alerted about the unattended bag but not a suspicious person running through the airport, he said Monday. He said the case also shows why all flight attendants and other airport employees need to be screened.
“With her bringing this amount of narcotics in the airport, chances are this wasn’t her first time through,” said McClain, head of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association. “We’re hoping this is a wake-up call to airport management as well as federal legislators.”
Security threats from “insiders” — airline and airport employees, as well as workers hired by contractors — have been a focus of the TSA, particularly after the December 2014 arrest of several Delta Air Lines baggage handlers. Prosecutors allege they smuggled guns, including an AK-47, from Atlanta to New York.
Federal authorities said last year that they busted a marijuana smuggling ring at Oakland International Airport, with arrests including baggage handlers. A separate arrest in December involved a TSA worker accused of allowing drug runners to pass their bags through X-ray machines without being stopped.
Four former baggage handlers at San Diego’s airport were sentenced in September in a drug-smuggling case.
The TSA has said that full screening of all employees would cost too much. Instead, the agency has urged airports to increase random screenings of workers and to keep background checks up to date.
“We will pay particular attention to the insider threat,” TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger told a Senate committee earlier this month.
35 responses to “TSA seizes 70 pounds of cocaine after flight attendant flees”
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I don’t understand. A person found with 70 pounds of cocaine was allowed to go free. I can’t imagine that this will be treated as a misdemeanor so what’s going on.
Th usual reason, which is so that the FBI can shadow her moves and lead them to her leader.
Aha! Story has been updated to say the flight attendant took off! That’s why she wasn’t taken into custody. Details, details.
Female airline worker at the international arrival building suggest that it could be a pilot or a crew member. 70 pound is a lot of cocaine!
I guess it was a little much for personal use?
Make her eat it all at once or off with her head?
Seventy pounds! I guess rolling a shipping crate through the airport is a dead giveaway.
YIKES!!! – say aloha to your career and hello to prison…
Worse she is a dead person, some one has to est the loss. I hear cartel take you to the dump, tie you down,make cuts on your body and let the buzzards eat you. They clean you to the bone, like pigs….local favorite.
Good point, better off she turn herself into the police, rat on her organization and go into witness protection program. Online estimate would be that 70 pounds of pure, high quality cocaine would be worth something like 6.3 million dollars. Whoever owns that cocaine will not take the loss lying down. On top of which she would be considered a loose end that needs to be “neutralized” as she would be a potential to rat out the organization.
yup losing/dropping the 70 kilos, think that is/will be her demise.
maybe she was trying to build a snowman.
That about 31 kilos of coke. Must have been planning a big party for Hollywood bigwigs.
Either TSA got lucky or someone dropped a dime on the suspect. It that is the case, it was probably not the first shipment and others were allowed to go thru.
If so, there should be other arrests as the authorities roll up the network and get some to rat out others, up the chain and elsewhere.
Boy, that is a lot of “blow”.
G R E E D
like we always say – “it was the first time”……..i wonder if this was the case????
Terminal 4 would be American Airlines …
Thank You ….. Very Much. However we can soon learn the identity of the fugitive flight attendant because she did not report to her flight. This case will soon be solved. Stay tuned to Hawaii News Now for details at 10:00.
808warriorfan – Typical rookie post. Terminal 4 also serves Qantas.
Ref: http://los-angeles-lax.worldairportguides.com/terminals.php
Neither American or Qantas airlines flight attendants wear Gucci shoes as part of their uniforms.
“First Class” Dessert? (Snow cones?)
I guess the employees need inspecting more than harassing some old lady.
Why bother the TSA screeners when you can simply subvert, extort or outright threaten members of the flight crew, mechanics, baggage handlers or caterers to sneak weapons or contraband aboard?
The TSA screeners are never in any way bothered in screw-ups like this. The whole purpose of the TSA is to humiliate and intimidate decent Americans – frequently in violation of their 4th Amendment rights. Would it be possible to make these impolite and poorly-groomed high school dropouts use at least a bit of deodorant and/or mouthwash? Man, do they stink!
LOL!!! true and gross!!
sometimes i feel molested after going through TSA inspection 🙁
Just one of thousands of reasons why LAX ranks in the gutter compared to real, world class airports. Best way to see LAX is either in your rear view mirror while driving away or out the window as your plane departs.
I don’t like LAX’s food options.
70 lbs! How did she lift it onto the belt?
The sale of poison to our kids has to stop. Human Greed wins again.
Everyone has a price and the flight and ground crews are the weakest link.
Correct, lowest airport workers are the most vulnerable. Starts with security personnel who provide security both inside and outside the complex. Then those that handle logistical support of transportation equipment. Contractors at HNL are the lowest paid. Drugs, gambling, and debt are reasons to look the other way. This was the reason the Federal government took over screening, raised the educational standard, required background checks and most recently, federal security clearance. Any kind of arrest, you loose that security clearance, you are terminated. Problem now, Tea lose most if their personnel to other federal agencies over time. Example of lowest paid. 4 Securitas officers collecting bribes from taxi drivers. Federal, State, and county also has a very large narcotics operation at HNL. Hawaii is a High Intensity Drug Trafficking airport, based on vulnerability.
What greatly concerns me is that it doesn’t seem that much effort was made to apprehend the mule. What if this was a potential terrorist? With all the cameras in place at LAX, you cannot tell me that this person was able to get away scot free. How difficult is it to pick out a woman running around barefoot? She sure is going anywhere very fast. And we’re supposed to feel safe when getting on an airplane? This whole incident smacks of Incompetence.
And you expect these people to protect us. They are corrupt.
PLEASE TELL US THE RESULT AND SENTENCE OF THIS CROOK ..MAYBE IN THE FUTURE IT WILL DETER SOME OF THE PROBLEM IF NOT THEN INCREASE THE SENTENCE…THE IMPORTANT THING THAT IS NOT DONE IS THE TRANSPARENT FOLLOW UP.
She should have stuffed it in her bra and made it look like two 35lb boobs:)
Supergirl. Curiously where was she taking the dope after it got into the USA? What other alternative transportation options are there to smuggle powder to other destinations?