"2 former TSA employees plead guilty in airport drug case"

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Former Delta, TSA workers plead guilty in airport drug case
The Associated Press


Two former employees of the Transportation Security Administration and a
former Delta Air Lines employee assigned to Atlanta's airport pleaded guilty
Wednesday to involvement in a drug-smuggling operation.

Former Delta employee Leslie Adgar, 42, and one of the former TSA workers,
44-year-old Jon Patton, admitted conspiring to distribute cocaine and
heroin.

Andre Mays, 24, the other ex-TSA worker, pleaded guilty to entering a secure
airport area in violation of screening requirements.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 17. Adgar and Patton face a minimum
sentence of 10 years in prison. Patton could receive up to a year.

Prosecutors said a confidential source working for the Drug Enforcement
Administration arranged in December to smuggle two kilograms of what was
purported to be cocaine to New York in luggage carried past security in
Atlanta and onto a Delta flight in exchange for $8,000.

Two subsequent arrangements were made in January and February involving
shipments of fake cocaine or heroin from Atlanta to New York, U.S. Attorney
David E. Nahmias said.

Rodney G. Benson, in charge of the DEA in Atlanta, said the three "were
aggressively investigated for abusing their positions of trust as TSA and
Delta employees."

"Such misconduct undermines the efforts of law enforcement officers who work
so hard to keep our airports safe from the dangerous substances these
individuals were attempting to smuggle," Benson said.

On the web:

Airport Security & the DC Shuffle
http://www.californiaaviation.org/weblog/2007/04/airport-security-dc-shuffle


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