{"id":12104,"date":"2015-05-19T19:02:12","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T02:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=12104"},"modified":"2015-05-19T19:02:12","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T02:02:12","slug":"southwest-airlines-baggage-handlers-allegedly-used-positions-for-drug-dealing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=12104","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Airlines Baggage Handlers Allegedly Used Positions for Drug Dealing"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"usdojseal\"<\/a>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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The handlers then gave the bags to passengers waiting in a sitting area or near a bank of phones \u2014 who had already passed through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, officials said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Office, which has a law-enforcement presence at the airport.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint, the conspiracy was operating as early as July 2012.
\n