"OIA ramp workers face security screen"

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

OIA runway workers face security screen
Extra inspections are put into place after the arrests of men on charges
of drug and gun smuggling.
By Henry Pierson Curtis 
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel 


All runway personnel at Orlando International Airport now face security
screening after the weekend arrests of five current and former
co-workers on charges of sneaking drugs and guns aboard commercial
aircraft.

A four-month investigation found that the targeted baggage handlers and
ramp workers easily bypassed all the post-Sept. 11 measures designed to
protect travelers from being hijacked, according to a hearing Monday in
federal court in Orlando.

"Such willingness put at risk everyone on that airliner," U.S.
Magistrate James G. Glazebrook said in declining to set bail. "Anything
could have been in those bags, and they did not know if they were
dealing with terrorists."

The uninspected bags were given to undercover Drug Enforcement
Administration agents posing as passengers. Other agents had convinced
the OIA employees that they were dealers supplying drug rings in Puerto
Rico with heroin, cocaine, marijuana and handguns, a DEA supervisor
testified. 

On Monday, the Transportation Security Administration and the Greater
Orlando Aviation Administration began inspecting bags carried by ramp
workers and baggage handlers when they arrived for work. It could not be
learned if this would become a permanent policy.

Although Miami International Airport screens all employees entering the
property, OIA only recently began checking workers who must pass through
security checkpoints to staff concession stands near arrival and
departure gates. 

The investigation began in May when an informant introduced undercover
DEA agents to Jose L. Ortiz, who, although not an OIA worker, claimed he
had "extensive contacts with employees at OIA that smuggled bags
containing drugs past security and then delivered them to couriers in
the secure area near the departing gates," records state. On June 9,
Ortiz accepted $5,000 to deliver a backpack containing what he was told
was 2.2 pounds of heroin to a courier waiting for a flight to San Juan,
records state. A month later, Ortiz was paid $7,000 to deliver two
25-pound packages of marijuana to passengers flying to the island,
records show.

A second case developed in late July when a former OIA employee with a
felony drug conviction told the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives that another former OIA employee was planning to ship 10
Glock handguns to Puerto Rico aboard a Spirit Airlines flight. 

Angel "Tito" Diaz, the former worker, claimed he regularly used a Spirit
Airlines employee to ship pistols from Orlando to San Juan, where they
were sold for more than 100 percent profit, the informant told ATF.

On Friday, Diaz accepted a locked bag containing what he thought were 11
pounds of cocaine and five handguns and gave them to Luis Morales, a
mechanic at Jet Aircraft Maintenance, who delivered the bag to an
undercover agent inside the airport, records claim. 

On Saturday, the six defendants were arrested. Diaz and Morales, no ages
or addresses given, are charged with interstate shipment of firearms
without notifying the carrier shipping the firearms. Ortiz, Luis
Santana-Torres, Jose Cantres and Edwin Vega-Reyes, no ages or addresses
given, were charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute one or
more kilograms of heroin and marijuana. All six remain held without bail
in the Seminole County Jail.


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