Four flight attendants abused “their privileges as airline employees” and smuggled “millions of dollars of drug money” out of New York City to the Dominican Republic, federal government mentioned Wednesday.
The suspects had get entry to to the “Known Crewmember (KCM)” lane at John F. Kennedy International Airport, giving them rapid and X-ray-free passage via safety, government mentioned.
“In effect, given these loosened security procedures, KCM privileges allow flight attendants to bypass airport security with large quantities of cash without that cash being seized,” a grievance written by way of a Homeland Security Investigations particular agent mentioned.
Charlie Hernandez, 42; Sarah Valerio Pujols, 24; Emmanuel Torres, 34; and Jarol Fabio, 35, all face quite a lot of fees hooked up to “unlicensed money transmission,” prosecutors mentioned.
Hernandez lives in West New York, New Jersey, whilst the opposite 3 defendants are living in New York City, officers mentioned.
They are accused of smuggling about $8 million in general in “bulk cash” to the Dominican Republic, prosecutors mentioned.
“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,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams mentioned in a observation.
An informant gave Hernandez $121,215 — price range “derived from narcotics trafficking” — and he then gave Pujols $61,215 of that money for them to take to the Dominican Republic in December 2019, in accordance to the grievance.
Torres is accused of smuggling a minimum of $1.5 million in drug money to the Dominican Republic between 2015 and 2022, the grievance mentioned. Fabio allegedly sneaked out $1.5 million between 2015 and 2023, federal government mentioned.
Delta Airlines showed that two of the defendants paintings for the Atlanta-based provider.
“Delta has cooperated absolutely with legislation enforcement in this investigation and can proceed to accomplish that,” the airline said in a statement.
The four were arrested Tuesday, a Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson said.
An attorney for Pujols said her client is no longer in custody but declined any further comment.
Michael Kosnar and Donna Mendell contributed.
