Pubdate: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. Author: Jane Sutton AMERICAN AIRLINES STAFF ARRESTED IN DRUG STING MIAMI (Reuters) - Nearly 60 American Airlines baggage handlers and food contractors were charged Wednesday with smuggling what they believed to be cocaine, grenades and guns onto passenger planes at the Miami airport in a sting that federal agents said turned up glaring security lapses. "We were convinced we could basically get anything on the planes," said U.S. Attorney Tom Scott, whose office led the sting. "The procedures that do exist were breached and the security procedures at that airport are obviously insufficient to do the job." No real weapons or drugs made it onto the planes during the two sting operations, agents said. One, "Operation Ramp Rats," targeted ramp workers employed by American and was prompted by tips that employees were selling their security access to put illegal drugs on planes. The other targeted food workers employed by Lufthansa Service Sky Chefs, a catering service under contract with American. It was prompted by the discovery of a load of genuine heroin that had been smuggled onto a plane in coffee packets, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Taylor said. Officials at Sky Chefs were unavailable for comment. The heroin-coffee mixture was accidentally brewed up and served to the pilot, who reported that his coffee had a strange flavor and "tasted weak," Scott and Taylor said. Fifty-eight people were indicted, including 13 Sky Chefs workers, 30 American Airlines workers, a federal agriculture inspector, an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent and a Broward County, Florida, sheriff's employee. The rest were described by prosecutors as street-level drug dealers. Federal agents fanned out at 4 a.m. EDT to arrest the suspects, nabbing some at the airport and rousing others from their beds. Scott said the American employees flew 660 pounds of fake cocaine into Miami aboard flights from Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador, then used their free airline passes to ferry the drugs aboard flights to Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and other cities in the northeastern United States. They were uniformed but off duty, and carried the drugs aboard in their backpacks or placed the packages aboard while the planes sat on the ground in supposedly secure areas, Scott said. Other off-duty workers retrieved contraband from planes that had just landed, loading it onto American baggage carts, then driving it into restricted access areas of the terminal. "These are individuals that were not scheduled to work that day. They were never challenged. They were never asked, 'Why are you here?''' Scott said. "These planes are supposed to be sealed off." At least twice, undercover agents paid ramp workers to carry hand grenades and guns aboard the planes in their backpacks, then substituted dummy weapons to avoid endangering passengers. Scott said the going price to smuggle grenades aboard was $7,000. "One of the defendants did show some concern. He was worried about blowing himself up when he carried it onto the airplane," said Patricia Galupo, special agent in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and firearms' Miami office. Investigators said the food service workers stashed bundles of what they believed to be cocaine into the sides of the metal food carts, then wheeled them aboard. "These employees were trusted by the various agencies at Miami International Airport and by the public," said Vincent Mazzilli, acting special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration's Miami office. "They let us all down." American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp (NYSE:AAR - news), said it cooperated with federal authorities throughout the two-year probe. "While we are disturbed that a small group of employees were part of this smuggling ring, their activities have been under federal government and company surveillance for quite some time," the airline said in a statement. Scott disputed that a "small group" was involved, saying "This is not a case of one or two rogues." He said investigators documented more than 38 drug and weapons transactions by some 30 American workers. DEA spokesman Brent Eaton said there were so many suspects arrested that the DEA had to borrow a bus from federal marshals to hold them all while they were booked and fingerprinted. The suspects were charged with conspiring to smuggle drugs and drug and weapons violations. Charges against them were spelled out in several federal indictments returned in south Florida and in the eastern District of New York. Colombia's state security police aided in the U.S. investigation, which they said led to the recent drug arrests of 10 people in the southwest city of Cali. The suspects allegedly infiltrated a company that carried out maintenance on American Airlines passenger jets. - --- MAP posted-by: Thunder