Boggie Dog

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/forty-si...t-dfw-airport/

Another case of airport insiders evading security to introduce contraband in the secured areas of an airport and then distribute the contraband around the country.

Hopefully these types of incidents will always be drugs and not bombs since TSA security seems unable to actually secure airports.

coachrowsey

So glad to be retired & no longer dealing with this crap.

RadioGirl

Well, it's only one bad apple, uh, a few bad apples, I mean 46 bad apples - uh, oh, that doesn't sound good.. well, ... ... ... Oh look, over there, I think it's Kim Kardashian!!!

(Whew; that was close.)

N830MH

No one ever sneaks drugs into the secure areas. Nobody! This must stop! What is happening there? They didn't screening at security checkpoints or near baggage doors? How it did happen?

My, my, my!!! They had a background check!!!! They failed to required to check the employees' background check.

FlyingUnderTheRadar

Here let me help …

Well, it's only a bushel bad apples - uh, oh, that doesn't sound good.. well, ... ... ... Oh look, over there, I think it's Kim Kardashian!!! it's a fruit basket.

FliesWay2Much

Seeing as how really good the TSA is at searching for, and finding, drugs, it's amazing that this happened at all!

petaluma1

I'm lovin' it! More proof that the TSA can't do anything right.

chollie

Unless I'm reading it wrong, fewer than four of them worked at the airport.

Section 107

You are reading it correctly. Here is the relevant text of the story:

Authorities said four defendants either worked at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport or used ties to an airport worker to bypass security screening. Airport spokesman David Magana released a statement saying airport officials were aware of the FBI sting investigation and that none of the people named in the indictment is employed by Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Other parts of the story make it appear there was only one person who actually worked at the airport and who used his/her credentials to bring the bag of drugs either to the passenger area for carryon or was able to get a bag into checked baggage for pickup upon arrival by another conspirator.

So, still only 1 bad apple, not so many we need to run for a Kardashian!
Seriously, there are bad cops out there all the time, no one seems to be suggesting we dismantle all the police departments....

Boggie Dog

What I would like to see would be for airport workers to considered security risks equal to passengers.

For some reason TSA is stepping up DFW airport worker screenings so I suspect more is going on than what has been released to the public.

chollie

I know the shortcomings of background checks, but it's still hard to believe that none of the four individuals involved here (or those involved in the Oakland takedown a couple months ago) have ever been in trouble in any way.

To me, these crimes are different from crimes of opportunity, ie, crooked TSO or LE sees a valuable watch or laptop laying around, no witnesses, and the temptation is too much.

This (airport workers/TSOs smuggling contraband past security) seems an entirely different sort of crime, one that indicates 1) prior criminal activity or 2) it's a sting and would never have happened without an agent patiently turning a weak-willed fool into a weak-willed criminal.

Boggie Dog

It wouldn't matter to much what their past was if they were screened entering the secure area of their workplace.

I am not advocating for people with a criminal record to be airport workers, far from it, but a thorough screening would bring an end to airport employees introducing contraband through employee entrances.

I'm sure the criminal element would find other means but that doesn't justify not taking steps to plug security holes as they are found.

Trust but verify!

chollie

Yeah.

Whether it's genuine security or a dog-and-pony show for the public, I regularly get my crotch grabbed in the name of security - for no other reason than that I want to fly. What percentage of pax originating in the US have been actually found guilty of getting contraband past the checkpoint (without collusion from TSOs)?

What percentage of the collective airport work force (TSOs, airport and airline workers) have been found guilty of getting contraband into the sterile area and onto airplanes?

Yet I'm the one who is standing there with someone's face and hands in my crotch while the group of people who have collectively produced known criminals on multiple occasions continue to sweep through security with their privates unmolested.

petaluma1

Just like the FBI and their "terrorists" finds.

Anyway, the TSA tells us they have to be right 100% of the time because all it takes is one person to wreak havoc. TSA needs to be thanking the stars above because with all the smuggling plots it has missed, none have involved bombs.

Section 107

Actually, it has to be a very minuscule amount both in raw numbers and percentage because I suspect most are never prosecuted - the person will be suspended on the spot and usually end up fired and prosecutors will use their discretion to decide that is a heavier penalty than is worth their time to pursue. The raw numbers of badged people actually bringing contraband into the secure areas is in any event going to be quite low in any event.

At the same time, it is a much larger percentage relative to the percentage of passengers who have been found guilty of bringing contraband through the checkpoint even as the raw number of pax attempting to bring contraband through the checkpoints is exponentially greater - just look at the thousands of weapons that are confiscated every year.

There is currently no way to track this, but I suspect while the number of employees who can enter the sterile or the SID areas of an airport is a fraction of the number of pax entering the sterile area of an airport each year, the number of actual entries into the sterile or the SID areas by employees dwarfs that of pax entering the sterile area. Therefore the better measure of the efficacy of a security regime would be the number of attempts known/thwarted/prosecuted per entry for each group.

Using that measure I suspect you will find that pax are many times more likely to try to bring prohibited items into the sterile area than employees.