Flight attendants use security privileges to smuggle millions in drug money out of US: federal prosecutors

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Federal brokers hauled a flight attendant out of New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport as they broke up a world money laundering ring that prosecutors allege smuggled $8 million in drug-related proceeds out of the U.S. by taking benefit of flight crews’ straightforward airport entry.

Four airline workers, three from New York and one other from New Jersey, are accused of taking a reduce of every cargo as they snuck it by way of particular employee-access lanes at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints and onto flights sure for the Dominican Republic.

The suspects all had particular clearance with the TSA below the Known Crewmember Program, or KCM. Airline workers with KCM standing have a separate, expedited security lane and face much less scrutiny, in accordance to federal prosecutors.

“In effect, given these loosened security procedures, KCM privileges allow flight attendants to bypass airport security with large quantities of cash without that cash being seized,” the federal prison grievance reads.

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A flight attendant accused of smuggling drug money out of the U.S. and into the Dominican Republic by abusing his identified crewmember standing is escorted out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. (Obtained by Fox News Digital / Fox News)

Charlie Hernandez, 42, Sarah Valerio Pujols, 42, Emmanuel Torres, 34, and Jarol Fabio 35, every face federal felony prices of working an unlicensed money transmission enterprise and violating airport security necessities.

“As alleged, the defendants knowingly smuggled large amounts of illicit money linked to the sale of narcotics, to include fentanyl, and took advantage of airport security checkpoints by using their trusted positions as flight attendants,” Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Ivan Arvelo stated Wednesday. “This investigation has exposed critical vulnerabilities in the airline security industry and has illuminated methods that narcotics traffickers are utilizing.”

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They allegedly used the code phrase “lotions” to imply drug money and allegedly checked in with their handlers for cargo in advance of flights to the Caribbean nation and referred to the smuggling ring’s drug-dealing purchasers as “los tigres,” Spanish for “the tigers.” When referring to “stuff,” they meant the medicine, together with fentanyl, that led to the illicit proceeds.

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Hernandez is accused of smuggling at the very least $2.5 million between 2014 and 2019, in accordance to courtroom paperwork. In that very same span, Pujols allegedly transported at the very least $1.5 million on flights to the Dominican Republic. Both Torres and Fabio are accused of smuggling greater than $1.5 million apiece between 2015 and final yr and face up to 15 years in jail.

In trade for getting the money by way of TSA checkpoints, they every allegedly obtained a small reduce – round $1,000 to $2,000 per $60,000 smuggled.

A passenger plane takes off from JFK worldwide Airport in New York because the Manhattan skyline looms in the space on Feb. 5, 2024. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP by way of Getty Images / Getty Images)

“As alleged, these flight attendants smuggled millions of dollars of drug money and law enforcement funds that they thought was drug money from the United States to the Dominican Republic over many years by abusing their privileges as airline employees,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams stated in an announcement.

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Hernandez additionally faces conspiracy prices, bringing his most jail sentence to 20 years. Pujols faces the identical conspiracy cost and a further depend of bulk money smuggling, growing her most attainable penalty to 25 years behind bars if convicted.

A flight attendant accused of smuggling drug money out of the U.S. and into the Dominican Republic by abusing his identified crewmember standing is escorted out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. (Obtained by Fox News Digital / Fox News)

She had been fired by her employer, an unspecified international airline, in 2019. Customs and Border Protection brokers allegedly discovered $60,000 in undeclared money in her purse throughout a test on Dec. 20 of that yr, in accordance to the grievance.

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Homeland Security Investigations and the NYPD started investigating a world drug trafficking and money laundering ring in 2018, main them to an informant recognized in courtroom paperwork as “Cooperating Witness 1,” who bought out his alleged mules.

After CBP brokers stopped Pujols, the informant informed federal investigators that Hernandez had one other $60,000 which is at present unaccounted for.

Fox News’ Bonny Chu contributed to this report.