Baggage Handler Sentenced To 5 Years For Attempted Cocaine Smuggling
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A 40-year-old former US Air baggage handler has been sentenced to prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine in to the country on a US Air flight to Philadelphia from Jamaica in 2009.
Defendant Crayton Reynolds admitted conspiring with others to smuggle 11 pounds of cocaine into the country. Reynolds actually retrieved a duffel bag believed to contain the cocaine from a flight, but authorities intervened and said it contained a sham product instead.
Brian Michael, an assistant special agent in charge of immigration and customs enforcement for Homeland Security investigated.
"They are given access to their areas, they are screened, you know, with background checks etc, but if they go dirty, then they are on the inside and that poses a threat and that is something we look at very seriously," Michael says.
US Attorney Zane Memeger says Reynolds breached a position of trust, and now he'll have five years to think about his unwise decision.
Reported by Tony Hanson, KYW Newsradio
