DRUG ARRESTS OF AIRLINE WORKERS HIGHLIGHT SECURITY PROBLEMS

Dozens of people arrested Wednesday on charges that they
smuggled drugs through Miami using their employee access to American
Airline flights exposed serious security problems.

Those arrested included 37 American Airlines ramp employees, an
American Eagle security guard, 13 LSG/Sky Chefs catering workers and
three law enforcement officers who were indicted on charges that they
smuggled cocaine, marijuana and weapons from Miami International Airport.

"As today's events so clearly illustrate, the problem is so pervasive
that we need to do more," U.S. Customs Commissioner Raymond Kelly
said. "These arrests should serve as a wake-up call to the airline
industry that greater attention must be paid to preventing drug
smuggling on commercial flights."

American Airlines officials acknowledged the difficulties of stopping
employees from abusing their security clearances but said they
cooperated fully with federal officials to catch these involved.

"This is a company with zero tolerance for illegal drugs," said Larry
Wansley, head of corporate security at Fort Worth-based American Airlines.

In all, 58 people were indicted on federal charges. Agents arrested
most of the suspects in Miami, with others taken into custody in New
York, Colombia and elsewhere. One suspect was arrested in Dallas,
where he now lives.

The undercover investigation, called Operation Ramp Rat, began in
April 1997 after authorities found drugs hidden on a number of flights
from Latin American landing in Miami.

The investigation found that airline employees used their airport
identification to get past traditional security checkpoints while
carrying cocaine, which was then delivered to other employees inside
the departure concourses. The drugs were hidden on various flights and
delivered to people in other cities.

In other cases, off-duty employees wore their uniforms until they were
past security checkpoints and then changed into street clothes. Those
employees then used their free travel benefits with the airline to
deliver the drugs, according to a Justice Department statement.

American employees also met incoming international flights and then
got onto the aircraft and retrieved boxes of drugs from their hiding
places, the Justice Department said.

The law enforcement officers involved in the smuggling operation are
accused of using their badges to bypass passenger checkpoints to carry
drugs into secure areas.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Scott said that the security breaches were
"extremely serious, and that in the age of domestic terrorism, the
current situation at MIA (Miami) is intolerable."

As part of the operation, undercover agents arranged through airline
employees to have fake cocaine and heroin shipped from Latin America
through Miami on food carts that were not listed as cargo on the airplane.

In another instance, an airline worker went around airport security to
put three hand grenades and a pistol on an American flight from Miami
to Philadelphia. Undercover agents had made the weapons inoperable
before handing them to the airline employee.

Also, officials in Colombia identified American as the airline used by
10 Colombians charged over the weekend with smuggling more than a
half-ton of heroin to Miami.

Col. Germn Jaramillo, director of Colombia's federal intelligence
service, described the smuggling operation as one of the most
sophisticated and well-organized that his police unit has
encountered.

In all, he estimated that the ring had smuggled around 1,100 pounds of
heroin since 1997. The smugglers typically sent two shipments per week
on American's Boeing 757 jets that serve the airline's busy routes
between Cali, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"They were hiding it in parts of the airplane that made it virtually
impossible to detect," Col. Jaramillo said.

Customs officials said that "nearly every aspect of the air passenger
transport process" was compromised, including an instance on an
American flight from Colombia in which flight attendants discovered
heroin hidden in coffee filters.

Customs and American Airline officials said the airline cooperated
fully in the investigation. Customs spokesman Dennis Murphy said the
airline probably won't be fined, though it would depend on further
investigation.

American, the largest carrier between the United States and Latin
America, for nine years has participated in a special federal program
to target drug smugglers.

The Carrier Initiative Program costs American about $15 million a
year, with more than 1,000 security employees assigned to ferret out
drug shipments and other smuggling, the airline said. Since its
inception, American has spent more than $100 million in the program.

Despite the investment, American tangled with Customs officials in
1996 when U.S. Customs Commissioner George J. Weise cited "a
disturbing number of incidents in which we believe that airline
employees' contract workers have secreted narcotics in sensitive
electronic areas of the aircraft cockpits and in air vents."

In its defense at the time, American cited its participation in the
program and its success in finding illegal drugs -- $650 million to
$675 million street value as of September 1996.

While Wednesday bust focused on Miami, the problem is not unique to
that airport or American Airlines.

The airlines serving Latin America have provided fertile ground for
drug arrests. Last Thursday, Customs officials arrested two Mexican
men who they said were carrying 10 pounds of cocaine hidden in their
luggage. They arrived at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport from
Guadalajara on an American flight.

"This could happen anywhere," said Julio Mercado, special agent in
charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Dallas. "This method
of using airline employees to smuggle drugs has been in existence for
years."

In July 1997, a number of Delta Air Lines employees were arrested on
charges of helping ship nearly $1 billion worth of cocaine through
Puerto Rico into the United States, primarily New York. The next day,
federal agents arrested some American Airlines mechanics accused of
moving a half ton of heroin and cocaine into the United States.

In 1995, officials found 464 pounds of cocaine on 10 American flights
ending in Miami, hanging from fishing lines on floor air vents.

"There is a particular problem of the corrupting effect of the drug
smuggling trade that requires vigilance," said Retired Rear Adm.
Cathal Flynn, the FAA's associate administrator for civil aviation
security. "We saw a dramatic result of that at Miami."

Staff writers David LaGesse in Washington, D.C., Tod Robberson in
Panama City and Andy Dworkin in Dallas contributed to this report.