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ATLANTA, GA.– Delta Air Lines baggage workers -current and former- have been arrested for allegedly smuggling guns and ammunition from Atlanta to Brooklyn.
Officials called it a “devastating breach of security.”
Four men in the group were charged in two separate indictments for allegedly conspiring to sell 153 firearms that were mostly bought in Georgia and destined for the streets of Brooklyn, from May to December 2014, the King’s County District Attorney’s office said in a statement.
Airport employees don’t have to go through security, so one of the men took advantage of that to smuggle the guns in and pass them off to another member of the ring, who would then fly the guns to New York.
Henry and Harvey did the gun exchange at the airport 17 times, the district attorney’s office said.
Henry used to work as a baggage handler at Delta as well, but was terminated in December 2010 for abusing the “Buddy Pass” system, according to a federal affidavit.
Eugene Harvey, from Georgia, Mark Quentin Henry, from New York, Tiffany Lane, of Jonesboro, Georgia; Ernest Leneau and Adrian Alleyne, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Grayling Smith, who has residences in Brooklyn and Snellville, Georgia are all being accused of the crime.
Harvey was arrested in Georgia and charged with “entering an airport area in violation of security requirements.”
“To make matters worse, these guns were intended to hit the streets of Brooklyn, where they could have been used to shoot and kill our residents and police officers,” said King’s County District Attorney Kenneth Thompson.
The ring was busted when the 153 weapons — ranging from compact AR-15 and AK-47 assault weapons to 9mm handguns to Glock pistols — were ultimately sold to undercover cops in New York.
Delta Air Lines was “cooperating with authorities in this investigation,” the airline said in a statement. “We take seriously any activity that fails to uphold our strict commitment to the safety and security of our customers and employees.”
