AIRLINE DRUG SMUGGLING RING CRACKED IN MIAMI

Federal Sting Nets 50 Employees Of American

MIAMI -- The smugglers moved with ease through Miami International Airport
and even made their way onto American Airlines planes parked at the gates,
stashing heroin in coffee containers in the planes' galleys and hiding
cocaine and marijuana in suitcases in the jets' baggage holds, a federal
indictment filed yesterday charged.

Once, they even agreed to stash on board three hand grenades, as carry-on
baggage.

As they went about their illegal business, in plain sight of passengers and
airport security officers, federal investigators said, the smugglers did
not worry about being caught by the airline. Most of them worked for the
airline.

In the culmination of a sting operation that exposed embarrassing security
lapses by both the airline and the airport, federal agents arrested more
than 50 American Airlines baggage handlers and food contract workers
yesterday morning, charging them in multiple indictments of conspiracy,
importation and distribution of drugs, and weapons trafficking.

The smuggling operation, which first came to light two years ago when an
American Airlines pilot was accidentally served a mixture of coffee and
heroin from a smuggled parcel and complained that it "tasted weird," was
more than just a drug crime, said investigators. It put passengers at risk,
said Ed Halley, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms.

Drugs, the investigation showed, were hidden in overhead compartments, the
small metal food carts the flight attendants use, wall panels, restrooms,
kitchen areas, cargo holds and -- more ominously -- inside the wheel bays
on American planes, said Halley.

"This compresses against cables and wiring," Halley said of the drug
shipments. "If cocaine shifts, and breaks a wire, you're in big trouble."

And, he added, what if the pilots had been poisoned by the heroin in the
coffee. "Who flies the plane?"

In a predawn raid at the airport and at the homes of dozens of American
Airlines ramp workers, baggage handlers and contract workers, federal
agents arrested 58 people in all, including two agents with the Immigration
and Naturalization Service, a Customs inspector and an off-duty employee at
the Broward County Sheriff's Department, who worked as a baggage handler.

By noon, some 50 people had been indicted on narcotics and weapons charges
in a two-pronged operation that also targeted employees of LSG/Sky Chefs, a
food service contractor owned by Lufthansa Airlines.

"We were convinced we could basically get anything on the planes," said
U.S. Attorney Thomas Scott, whose office led the sting operation. The
baggage handlers and food service workers apparently had no difficulty in
finding and removing the hidden drugs, under the noses of other employees
and airport security.

The accused smugglers went to work on their off days, in uniform, to help
find the hidden drugs and reship them, and were rarely questioned why they
just showed up on work crews, investigators said. They operated with
surprising arrogance, said U.S. officials.

"These people make $17, $18, $19 an hour with their regular jobs and they
still weren't satisfied," Halley said. "They were extremely confident
individuals. It was no big deal at all for them. We obviously were not
their only clients. They said, 'If you've got the money, we'll get it
through.'"

The airline, in a prepared statement, said that "while we are disturbed
that a small group of employees was part of this smuggling ring, their
activities have been under federal government and company surveillance for
quite some time. We will continue our efforts with law enforcement
officials to stem the flow of illegal drugs."

But it was not a case of a few rogue employees.

"What they had was a very elaborate scheme for aiding in the distribution
of narcotics and weapons," said Halley. "For a price, they would bypass
security and deliver anything that was paid for to a person who was paying
for it."

Rather than regarding the arrests as a wake-up call to American Airlines
that it needs to be be more vigilant, a company spokesman, Chris Chiames,
said the airline viewed it as confirmation that it was doing a good job. 7
"We've got numerous programs and surveillance programs in place regarding
people who have access to airport facilities," said Chiames. "We view these
kind of incidents as proof that the programs work."

No American managers or pilots were arrested in Miami. But eight other
people, including seven American employees, were arrested in New York state
in a related case, and 10 Colombians were arrested over the weekend in
Cali, Colombia, on drug charges that included allegations that they used
American's flights to smuggle more than a half ton of heroin and cocaine to
Miami over the past two years.

American, a respected carrier, was used by smugglers in Cali because "its
planes were not subjected to as rigorous inspections as occurs with
Colombian airlines," according to a statement from the Colombian
government. The drugs, according to that statement, were hidden in the
planes' tail, in electrical compartments and behind the pilots' seats.

It was not clear if the arrests in Colombia were related to the U.S.
arrests, but federal officials here did say that Colombian law enforcement
officials had helped in their operation at the Miami airport.

Halley said undercover agents had also paid to have guns and even military
explosives smuggled on board by employees who had no qualms about placing
even grenades in the overhead bin.

"The only thing they were concerned about was their own safety," he said.