OAKLAND
Federal officials charged a group of Southwest Airlines baggage handlers with using their positions at the airport to sneak bags of marijuana past security checkpoints before handing them off to passengers.
The 14 defendants were part of a wide-ranging conspiracy in which baggage handlers at the Oakland International Airport used security badges to enter a secure area of Terminal 2 – used by Southwest and not accessible to passengers, officials said.
The handlers then gave the bags to passengers waiting in a sitting area or near a bank of phones — who had already passed through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, officials said.
These passengers then transported the drugs in carry-on luggage on flights to other cities across the country, where the drugs were distributed and sold, authorities said.
The scheme had been in operation since as early as 2012, according to investigators with the FBI, the Port of Oakland and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, which has a law-enforcement presence at the airport.
According to the complaint, the conspiracy was operating as early as July 2012.
Baggage handlers Kenneth Wayne Fleming, 32, of San Leandro, California; Keith Ramon Mayfield, 34, of Oakland, California; and Michael Herb Videau, 28, of Oakland, California, are accused of using their security badges to cross security barriers while carrying unscreened baggage filled with packages of marijuana.
They would then hand off the baggage to co-conspirators, including Major Alexander Session III, 24, of Oakland, California; Clyde Barry Jamerson, 41, of Oakland, California; Kameron Kordero Eldridge Davis, 26, of Dublin, California; Ronnell Lamar Molton, 34, of Oakland, California; Francisco Manuel Carrasco, 29, of Hayward, California; Sophia Cherise West, 44, of Castro Valley, California; and others, who then would board outbound aircraft and bring the drugs to destinations throughout the country.
Proceeds from the sale of the marijuana eventually were deposited into accounts controlled by defendants Ahshatae Marie Millhouse, 27, of Oakland, California; Laticia Ann Morris, 40, of Little Rock, Arkansas; Donald Ray Holland II, 42, of Discovery Bay, California; and others.
Additionally, Mayfield used his privileges as an airline employee to ship drugs as cargo and have co-conspirators such as Brandon Jarred Davillier, 27, of Slidell, Louisiana, receive them for distribution.
The maximum penalty for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana is 40 years imprisonment and $5 million. The offense carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years imprisonment.
Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.