Creative Efforts to Drug Smuggling Found at LAX

Newsflash from your Hollywood Attorney:

Crime never pays. Unless of course you get away with it. And it appears criminals at Los Angeles International Airport are becoming more creative in their efforts to smuggle drugs past the watchful eyes and sophisticated equipment of law enforcement and the TSA. Outsmarting the systems in place to prevent smugglers from doing what they do has become more difficult over the years. But it hasn't deterred diehard crooks convinced they'll succeed. And apparently, all too often, they do.

The most recent misadventure involved one hundred pounds of pot discovered at LAX yesterday. The marijuana is worth about $300,000 and was found in four checked suitcases. But here's the thing. The pot was gift wrapped, disguised as birthday gifts. Officials say the wrapping paper had a cupcake print. Cute. But apparently not cute enough to escape detection.The luggage was scheduled for a flight bound for Atlanta but whoever checked the bags never actually boarded the plane. Needless to say, authorities are now looking for the bags' owners.

This effort is just the latest in a string of attempts to transport illegal drugs through LAX. One woman was recently caught trying to smuggle methamphetamine taped under one of her breasts. All it took in that case was a simple old fashioned pat down. But authorities have to be ever alert as criminals continue to come up with "interesting" ways to circumvent the law. A couple of months ago, a man from Tanzania pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle nearly two pounds of heroin into the U.S. through LAX in a nonworking laptop computer.

But things get a lot more tricky and complicated when the criminal activity involves the TSA. Last year, four current and former TSA screeners at LAX were charged with knowingly allowing luggage filled with cocaine, methamphetamine or marijuana to pass through checkpoints from January to July, 2011 in exchange for cash from drug couriers. TSA employees in Florida and New York have also been charged in similar schemes. While recruiting the very people who are supposed to prevent such criminal activity is probably the most effective tool drug traffickers can employ, even that isn't foolproof.

Still, the fact of the matter is, smuggling drugs, when successful, is a big bucks business. The Office of National Drug Control Policy estimates that Americans spend approximately $65 billion a year on illegal drugs with only about $1 billion seized by all Federal agencies combined. And even though the risk of being caught may be higher in some cases than the prospect of getting rich, just the mere possibility of the latter seems to be enough incentive for people to try it in increasingly creative ways.

Source.... http://www.myfoxla.com/story/23538817/creative-drug-smuggling-at-lax#ixzz2g6qYMtwK

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TSA Screener Arrested Threats at Los Angeles Airport

Newsflash from your Hollywood Attorney:

A former Transportation Security Administration screener has been arrested for making threats that led to the clearing of terminals at Los Angeles International Airport, the FBI said on Wednesday.

The suspect, Nna Alpha Onuoha, 29, of Inglewood, California, was arrested late on Tuesday by members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Los Angeles, the FBI said in a statement.

Onuoha been employed by the TSA since 2006 but resigned on Tuesday after being suspended. After he resigned, Onuoha allegedly left a package at TSA's Los Angeles International headquarters, addressed to a TSA employee, the statement said.

A police bomb squad that checked the package found an eight-page letter, "in which Onuoha expressed his thoughts about the incident that led to his suspension and disdain for the United States, among other opinions," the FBI statement said.

Later on Tuesday, a man believed to be Onuoha twice called the TSA and told an employee to begin evacuating specific terminals at the airport, it said.

Police cleared the terminals and no threat was found.

Officers found Onuoha's apartment empty, except for a note taped inside a closet with "an unspecified threat," citing Wednesday's anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

An FBI spokeswoman said a church and a van near the site of Onuoha's arrest in Riverside, California, were being searched.

Source... http://www.reuters.com

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Misconduct Cases for TSA at Airports - 9600 Cases in Just 2 Years

Newsflash from your Hollywood Attorney:

Transportation Security Administration officers were cited in more than 9,600 cases of misconduct from 2010 to 2013, and complaints against the agency rose by 26 percent in the last three years.

A new government report reinforces TSA’s reputation of misbehavior that air passengers have long complained about. The Government Accountability Office on Tuesday released its findings, which highlight cases in which TSA officers have stolen money from luggage, accepted bribes from drug dealers, and slept on the job.

The report cites a 26 percent increase in misconduct among TSA employees since 2010, and references the nature of the grievances against them.

Between 2010 and 2012, there were 2,000 reported cases of TSA employees who were sleeping on the job, not following procedures or allowing family members to bypass security checkpoints. There were 3,000 cases of TSA agents showing up late, not showing up at all, or leaving the job without approval.

The report references a specific case in which a TSA employee left an assigned checkpoint to help a relative carry her bag past the screening area. The agency later discovered that the bag contained “numerous prohibited items.”

There were 56 cases of reported theft during the three-year span, involving both cash and electronics. In one case, two former TSA employees admitted to stealing $40,000 from a bag at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Using an x-ray machine, the screeners discovered a wad of cash totaling $170,000, and removed some of the money. They were later arrested.

“[Stealing] was so easy,” Pythias Brown, a former TSA officer who stole more than $800,000 worth of goods, told ABC News last year, describing the agency’s culture of theft. “I walked right out of the checkpoint with a Nintendo Wii in my hand. Nobody said a word.”

Two subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on Wednesday to question TSA officials about the agency’s response to misbehavior. TSA Deputy Administrator John W. Halinski told the joint committees that employees are punished for their delinquencies.

“If they’re stealing, they’re doing drugs or breaching the security system intentionally and I can prove it, they’re out,” he said. But the GAO findings show that this is rarely the case.

The report notes that very few cases of misconduct were punished, and only 50 percent of the workers accused of sleeping on the job were reprimanded. Out of the total number of cases that resulted in penalties, 47 percent resulted in a letter of reprimand, 31 percent resulted in suspensions, and only 17 percent resulted in the employee’s termination from the agency. The agency’s lack of response to misbehavior is a cause for concern, but Halinski claims that letters of reprimand are more serious than they might appear. He said the letters can prevent employees from receiving bonuses or promotions, and haunt them throughout their careers.

“It’s a serious thing,” he said. But aviation security expert Jeff Price told ABC News that he is not convinced that any of the TSA’s penalties are helping to stop employees from misbehaving. In 2010, there were 2,691 reported cases of misconduct. In 2010, there were 3,408 – a 26 percent increase.

Read More...   http://rt.com/usa/tsa-misconduct-increase-three-years-866/

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