Several flight attendants have just been arrested, and are accused of smuggling $8 million in drug money from the United States to the Dominican Republic. Ouch!
Flight attendants transported $8 million to Dominican Republic
On Tuesday, May 7, 2024, four people were arrested, related to charges from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Specifically, the four people are all flight attendants for major international airlines, between the ages of 34 and 42. They’re accused of having transported $8 million in drug money from the United States to the Dominican Republic.
According to the accusations, the four had for years been smuggling narcotics trafficking proceeds from New York Kennedy Airport (JFK) to the Dominican Republic on commercial flights, taking advantage of their special privileges.
All of the defendants had Known Crewmember (KCM) status with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), allowing them to bypass the standard security screening, and instead use a special lane that’s subject to a lot less scrutiny.
Authorities started to become aware of this scheme a few years back, and in October 2021, they got the help of a cooperating witness. This person coordinated for the flight attendants to transport the proceeds from selling drugs back to the Dominican Republic, and they’d get a small percentage cut on the money they were transporting.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) set up a sting operation, whereby the government provided funds that were positioned as narcotics proceeds, to transport to the Dominican Republic. The flight attendants did indeed transport that money to the Dominican Republic, and it then ended up being returned.
The four now face a variety of charges:
- Each person has been charged with one count of operation of an unlicensed money transmission business, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison
- Each person has been charged with one count of entering an airport or aircraft in violation of security requirements, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison
- Two of the four people have additionally been charged with one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison
- One of the four people has additionally been charged with one count of bulk cash smuggling, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison
Here’s how US Attorney Damian Williams describes this:
“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. Today’s charges should serve as a reminder to those who break the law by helping drug traffickers move their money that crime doesn’t pay.”
I’m surprised Known Crewmember is still a thing
As you can see, the flight attendants in this case used their Known Crewmember privileges in order to be able to access the secure area of the airport without having to undergo full security screening
Much of the traveling public doesn’t realize that Known Crewmember is a thing, but this does exist, and allows eligible airline pilots and flight attendants to skip security, and instead just enter the secure area of an airport by providing ID. Now, it’s worth emphasizing that those using Known Crewmember are still subject to random screenings at times, so it’s not a totally foolproof way to bring something through security.
However, over the years we’ve seen a countless number of airline employees abuse these privileges to transport everything from drugs to large amounts of cash. Of course a vast majority of airline employees follow the rules, though with the volume of people using these checkpoints, there are going to be some bad apples.
I’m surprised that despite these repeated incidents, Known Crewmember seems to continue to be available, largely in the same way as before. Now, admittedly most of the “issues” involving Known Crewmember aren’t things that cause safety issues, but rather involve unrelated schemes (like drugs). However, if people are so easily able to smuggle all these things through Known Crewmember checkpoints, then one has to wonder what kind of things are not being caught…
Bottom line
Four flight attendants have been arrested for transporting millions of dollars worth of drug money between the United States and the Dominican Republic. Cartels would send drugs to the United States, and then these flight attendants would transport the proceeds from that back to the Dominican Republic, in exchange for a cut.
They used their Known Crewmember credentials in order to get through security without arousing suspicion, and were only caught after a cooperating witness helped.
What do you make of this case, and the general merits of Known Crewmember checkpoints?
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