The
breakup of a gun smuggling ring allegedly involving a current and former Delta Air
Lines employee
has exposed what a New York prosecutor described as an "egregious breach
of security" at Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta International Airport.
Brooklyn
District Attorney Kenneth Thompson said Tuesday that the investigation was
"deeply troubling" -- not only for the havoc the gun running
unleashed on the streets but because of the vulnerability to acts of terrorism
on air travel that it revealed.
"If
they can put guns on the plane this time," he told reporters, "they
could have easily put a bomb on one of those planes." Continue...
Two men
worked together to smuggle guns and ammunition on at least 20 flights from Atlanta to New York from May to
December, officials said.
"We
have an egregious breach of security" at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport because airport employees "are not required to go
through screening," said Thompson.
In total,
153 guns were recovered as part of a complex investigation that Thompson
outlined by using charts and surveillance video during a press conference in
New York.
Eugene
Harvey, who worked for Delta at the Atlanta airport, wasarrested at his home in Atlanta on Monday, authorities
said.
According to Harvey's arrest
warrant affidavit, here's how the operation worked:
-- Harvey
used his security clearance to help provide guns to a passenger named Mark
Quentin Henry after Henry cleared security.
-- Henry,
the former employee, allegedly brought the firearms in his carry-on luggage on
at least five flights from Atlanta to New York between May 1 and December 10.
-- During
that time frame, Henry supplied 129 handguns and two assault rifles to
co-conspirators in New York, the affidavit states.
-- One of
those co-conspirators ended up selling the firearms to an undercover New York
police officer.
"Gun
violence is tearing our country apart," Thompson said. "In Brooklyn,
far too many people have been victims of gun violence."
Reese
McCranie, spokesperson for the Atlanta airport, said officials have cooperated
with the FBI, the Transportation Security Administration and other agencies and
was reviewing its security.
"As
part of the TSA- and airport-approved multi-layered security plan, all
employees must pass extensive criminal history record checks, security threat
assessments, and security training prior to being approved for access to
secured areas," he said in a statement. "Additionally, employees are
subjected to continuous vetting and random inspections."
In a
statement, the TSA said it took "the potential for insider threats at
airports very seriously."
"TSA
administers security threat assessments and airport criminal checks for all
airline employees prior to receiving credentials and access privileges,"
the statement said. "This is a recurring vetting process that involves
random checks. TSA continues to closely partner with law enforcement on this
investigation and, where possible, will use the findings from the investigation
to improve current processes."
Thompson
praised Delta for being cooperative from start to finish of the undercover
probe.
Henry was
arrested in New York on December 10 after landing at John F. Kennedy
International Airport with 18 handguns in his bag -- seven of which were
loaded, the affidavit says.
"The
problem at this airport in Atlanta is that the employees don't have to go
through screening," Thompson said. "Henry knew that. Henry would give
Harvey the guns outside the airport. Harvey would go through. All he had to to
was badge himself in ... and he's in the terminal with the guns."
Henry
told investigators that he had flown from Atlanta to New York with the 18
firearms and associated ammunition in his carry-on bag, FBI task force agent
George Taylor wrote in the affidavit.
So how
could a man get more than a dozen guns on a flight in his carry-on backpack?
"Had
the eighteen firearms been inside the Oakley bag when Henry passed through TSA
screening, the firearms would have been discovered," Taylor wrote.
"Accordingly,
I reasonably believe the eighteen firearms bypassed security."
The
'backdoor method'
Mary
Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst, said the suspects apparently "took
advantage of known loopholes" in airport security. Baggage handlers and
other airport employees don't have to go through a concourse screening as
passengers do, creating a "backdoor method" for airport employees to
smuggle materials, she said.
"That's
literally been a loophole since 2002," when the TSA was established, she
said. "There was a big issue on cost."
When she
was inspector general of the Transportation Department for six years ending in
1996, Schiavo raised the "same kind of warning" about the screening
of airport employees.
"This
is an important wake-up call. I just hope Washington and the airports heed
it," she said.
Schiavo
said that "it will take a lot of expense and manpower to close that
loophole."
At the
news conference, Thompson held one of the weapons allegedly smuggled by Henry
-- an AK-47.
"This
gun can shoot through a car door," he said. "It can shoot through an
apartment door. It can shoot through a bullet-proof vest. In November, Mr.
Henry brought this gun on a Delta commercial airliner to New York."
Transfer
in men's restroom?
On the
morning of December 10, the affidavit says, baggage handler Harvey used his
security clearance to enter Delta's employee parking lot and then the secure
area of the airport.
"Employees
entering this area are not subjected to screening by the Transportation
Security Administration (TSA), neither at the time of entry into the employee
parking lot, nor upon entry to the internal secure/restricted area at
Hartsfield-Jackson," the affidavit states.
Surveillance
video showed that on the same morning, the passenger Henry cleared security
with a black Oakley backpack. He then went to sit down at the airport's
Concourse B.
According
to Taylor, that's when Henry started texting Harvey. Moments later, Harvey
entered a men's restroom in Concourse B. And Henry followed.
After one
minute, the affidavit says, Henry walked out of the restroom with the backpack.
The
criminal complaint also says on several occasions this year, Harvey used his
security clearance to enter the secure Delta employee parking lot -- even
though he was supposed to be off or on sick leave.
And on
each of those dates, Henry boarded a flight from Atlanta to New York.
Delta
spokesman Morgan Durrant told CNN the airline is cooperating with authorities.
"We
take seriously any activity that fails to uphold our strict commitment to the
safety and security of our customers and employees," he said.
Thompson
said Henry allegedly boarded 20 flights with guns between May and December.
"We
were fortunate that we were able to get all the guns that they tried to put on
the streets of Brooklyn," he said.
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