AIRLINE WORKERS FACE DRUG CHARGES

Sting Operation Targets Smugglers

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 Wednesday 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. They were 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
Wednesday 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 U.S. 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, bathrooms,
kitchen areas, cargo holds and -- more ominously -- inside the wheel bays on
American planes, said Halley.

"This compresses against cables and wiring," he 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 pre-dawn 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, including two agents with the U.S. 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 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 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.

Security at the airport, said Scott, was "obviously insufficient to do the job."

When the American employees carried the drugs themselves, he said, "they
used their American Airlines IDs, got past the ticket counter and weren't
asked any questions by ticket agents typically asked to a normal passenger,
like, if anyone had given them something to take on board. Then, they passed
security, loaded their stuff on American Airlines baggage carriers and flew
on free flights."

The airline 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 investigators said 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," Halley said. "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.

"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 eastern New
York state.

Ten Colombians were arrested over the weekend in Cali, Colombia, on drug
charges that included allegations that they used American Airlines flights
to smuggle more than a half ton of heroin and cocaine to Miami over the past
two years.

American 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 sections, in electrical
compartments and behind the pilots' seats.

It was not clear whether 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 -- fake -- smuggled on board by employees who had no qualms about
placing grenades in the overhead bin.

"We approached them during one transaction and asked them to carry three
hand grenades and a loaded pistol, and they had absolutely no problem with
it," said Halley. "The only thing they were concerned about was their own
safety."

Halley said they charged $7,000 for delivery of guns and $1,500 per kilogram
of cocaine, in 38 different transactions during the sting operation.