Major SFO Drug Smuggler Busted Bribing Airport Security Official
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A Texas man has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for bribing an airport security officer who allowed him to smuggle 50 pounds of cocaine through San Francisco International Airport, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Acting United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch said Bobby Napier was sentenced go federal prison after he pleaded guilty to the bribery charges on Tuesday.
Napier, 47, of Stafford, Tex., bribed a public official in order to smuggle drugs through passenger security screening at SFO. While not identifying the official, prosecutors said, it was an employee of a private company under contract to provide baggage and passenger screening services to the Transportation Security Administration.
The guilty plea agreement describes five separate occasions between May 16, 2013, and April 17, 2014, in which Napier paid the public official for the purpose of smuggling cocaine through the security screening checkpoints.
According to the guilty plea, Napier also admitted that even before the instances described in his plea agreement, he had smuggled marijuana through SFO.
Napier acknowledged making payments in the form of cash deposits to the public official's bank account, money orders or cash mailed to the official, and cash payments in face-to-face meetings.
He admitted the payments were intended to allow persons carrying drugs in carry-on luggage to pass through the security checkpoint undetected. Napier facilitated the smuggling of a total of 23 kilograms (50 pounds) of cocaine through the checkpoint and paid bribes totaling $13,500 to the TSA official.
In addition to the prison term, the judge sentenced Napier to three years of supervised release. The judge ordered Napier to surrender on or before September 8, 2017, to begin serving his sentence.