LAX AIRPORT SECURITY MAY HAVE AIDED SMUGGLING RING

MIAMI - Security lapses at Miami International Airport and American
Airlines enabled dozens of the carrier's employees and contract
workers to operate an international smuggling ring that transported
weapons and drugs to U.S. cities, investigators said.

At least 48 people were arrested yesterday on charges of conspiracy,
drug smuggling and weapons offenses in what is believed to be the
largest number of drug arrests involving a U.S. airline. Many face
life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors said workers hid drugs in food cars, garbage bags and
carry-on luggage, gaining easy access to secure areas by flashing
their ID badges. Some of the drugs were bogus cocaine and heroin
supplied by agents.

Even on their days off, uniformed ramp workers were allowed to drive
baggage vehicles to arriving international flights and unload a single
bag containing contraband without being challenged, authorities said.

"What we need is much closer scrutiny, much closer monitoring on the
part of the airlines of their employees," said U.S. Customs Service
Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

No one in management was known to have been arrested, and no American
pilots or flight attendants were indicted. American, the nation's No.
2 airline, said it has cooperated with investigators.

"This is a company with zero tolerance for illegal drugs," said Larry
Wansley, American's managing director of security.

The company blamed the problem on a "small group of employees," but
prosecutors disagreed.

"This is not a case of one or two rogues," U.S. Attorney Thomas Scott
said. "I think that alone speaks mouthfuls."

The arrests resulted from two sting operations. One began after a
pilot complained in April 1998 that his coffee tasted weak.
Investigators discovered 15 pounds of heroin stashed in coffee packs
aboard an American plane.

Operation Ramp Rats started in 1997 after agents confirmed suspicions
of widespread drug smuggling from Miami to other U.S. cities.

The drugs were put aboard American Airlines flights in Colombia and
Central America, flown to Miami, and then went on to Philadelphia,
Washington, Baltimore and Cleveland, investigators said. The
defendants also allegedly smuggled disabled guns and hand grenades
that undercover agents had given them.

"Because it was an undercover operation, it's hard to judge, but they
were making lots of money doing this, more than their salaries," said
Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Brent Eaton.

About 60 people were named in the indictment, including 30 American
baggage handlers and ground-crew workers at Miami International.
Thirteen current or former employees of LSG/Sky Chefs, a food-service
contractor owned by Lufthansa Airlines, were indicted.

Also indicted were an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent, an
inspector with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a Broward County
sheriff's deputy who worked part time as a baggage handler.

Separately, eight people - including seven current or former baggage
handlers and ramp agents for American - were named in a complaint in
New York in a similar case.

Prosecutors estimate that since 1996, the defendants used their
employee privileges on hundreds of trips from Miami to smuggle 10,000
pounds of drugs into the New York area.

Also, officials in Colombia identified American as the airline used by
10 Colombians charged over the weekend with smuggling more than 1,000
pounds of heroin to Miami.