MIAMI DRUG RING ARRESTS RAISE ALARM ABOUT AIRPORT SECURITY

WASHINGTON -- The arrests of dozens of American Airline line
employees and other workers at Miami International Airport for their
alleged roles in a huge drug and weapons smuggling operation has
raised questions about security not only in Miami but also at other
airports, officials and analysts said.

"There are dangerous and intolerable conditions that exist at the
airport that could compromise the security of you and your family,"
said Thomas Scott, the U.S. attorney for southern Florida. He urged
security reforms at Miami International and other airports.

Authorities said the smuggling network was made possible in part by
what they called "shocking" lapses in security at Miami.

At least 48 people, many of them American Airlines luggage handlers or
food-service employees of the huge LSG Sky Chefs catering company,
have been arrested in what officials called the biggest drug-smuggling
investigation ever against employees of a U.S. airline. American
Airlines and LSG Sky Chefs, a Lufthansa subsidiary, have vowed their
cooperation and said service would not be affected.

Many suspects face life in prison if convicted on charges of smuggling
weapons and narcotics, first from South America to Miami, and then in
some cases on to other airports in the Northeastern United States. Ten
other people are named in the multiple indictments handed down in
Miami and New York state.

In some cases, authorities said, uniformed ramp workers were able to
come to the airport on their days off, drive baggage vehicles to
arriving international flights. and unload a single bag, unchallenged.
They then carried the contraband out of the airport in backpacks.

"They were never challenged, they were never asked, 'Why are you
here'?' " said Mr. Scott. He said investigators were shocked at how
easily the employees were able to move about the airport at times and
in places where they had no clearance.

Raymond Kelly, the U.S. Customs Service cornmissioner, called for
"much closer scrutiny, much closer monitoring on the part of the
airlines of their employees."

Since 1996. the Customs Office has required background checks on all
airport employees with access to cargo. But an unintended result, say
some aviation experts, has been less rigorous checking of employees,
one-hired.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said that the agency would
audit the background checks of any airport employees arrested. Nearly
all those arrested live in the Miami area, though eight other persons,
seven of them American Airlines workers, were arrested in New York
state in a related case.

The FAA has pushed for a requirement that airport employees pass
through metal detectors as they come and go each day; it also favors a
policy of encouraging employees to report any unauthorized persons in
restricted areas. The airlines, however, say security is already tight
and that such measures would carry high costs.

The problem of air-port security -- including the theft of luggage --
has been chronic at some airports, including Miami.

When federal agents searched suspects' homes in the Miami area
Wednesday, they found S69,000 in cash, a safe and five laptop
computers that they said apparently had been stolen from luggage.

American, as the largest carrier to link the United States and Latin
America and the only one with direct flights to Colombia, has been
particularly vulnerable. Earlier this year, an employee in Puerto Rico
was arrested for allegedly smuggling 200 pounds (90 kilograms) of cocaine.

And in 1997, six American Airlines mechanics were arrested in Miami on
suspicion of smuggling about 1,000 pounds of cocaine and heroin.

Drug seizures involving American Airlines, however, are down sharply
from two years ago, and Customs officials attribute this partly to
improved cooperation with the airline.

"This is a company with zero tolerance for illegal drugs," said Larry
Wansley, American's managing director of security. The airline blamed
the problem on a "small group of employees."

In the course of the sting operation, agent, documented 38 separate
transactions in which 283 kilograms of fake cocaine were smuggled by
American Airlines or Sky Chef employees.

But they also smuggled handguns and, in one case, were prepared to
place three disarmed hand grenades on a Miami to Philadelphia flight.

"It's an issue here not only of narcotics." Mr. Scott said, "but
issues of security of the airport and the security of the flying public."

Drugs, originating in Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador, were hidden in
food carts, wall panels overhead compartments, cargo holds, wall
panels, bathrooms and even wheel bays.

Mr. Scott's office recommended a tightening of security at airports,
by limiting access to secure areas, issuing ID cards that would track
employees, and greater use of baggage scanners.

In another, possibly related case, 10 Colombians were arrested last
weekend in Cali on drug charges, including the use of American Airline
flights to smuggle more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine and heroin to
Miami over two years. The Colombian government contended Wednesday
that smugglers used American Airlines because its planes "were not
subjected to as rigorous inspections as occurs with Colombian airlines."