I agree with you, I think there are much more vulnerable targets to tempt bad guys.

I'm suggesting that a crooked TSO/baggage handler is functioning as a courier. He assumes he is facilitating the movement of drugs, but he has no real way of vetting the drug dealer's credentials. The dealer could slip something much nastier to a TSO to bypass security and the TSO would probably be none the wiser - until something really really ugly happened.

Likely? Perhaps not, but I would argue it's much more likely than a pax getting the same nastiness past screening.

That's aside from the fact that no one can positively say that no TSO or baggage handler could or would ever go off the rails and deliberately engage in a terrorist act. That's a far bigger threat, given their unfettered access, than if a pax tries the same.

I wonder how the percentage of pax caught at the checkpoint or in the sterile with genuine threats and likely intent* compares to the percentage of TSOs caught smuggling what they assumed were drugs or guns into the sterile area.

* I don't include pax, including some LEs and at least one PHX supervisor and one DEN TSO, who show up with guns at the checkpoint. The threat is real, but one generally assumes their was no evil intent. There are zero acceptable excuses for a TSO smuggling contraband of any sort into the sterile area.