It just isn't the passengers that security needs to worry about:
Smuggling sting nabs 55 from airline, contractor:
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"They are the ant army that descends on the airplane. They are perceived to be part of the landscape," said Tom Cash, a former Drug Enforcement Administration chief who is now a consultant for the Miami-based Kroll Associates security firm.
"The people that are never looked at are those who have a legitimate reason to be there. These are the people with the keys to the kingdom," Cash said.
Sources say the ramp agents and other workers used their employee passes and airport access -- while both on and off- duty -- to meet planes carrying the fake contraband.
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Sources said 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of phony cocaine was used in the investigation and more than $300,000 paid to suspects. "We didn't run out of defendants," said one source. "We ran out of money."
[HOW WAS YOUR LAST CUP OF AIRLINE COFFEE?]
A separate portion of the investigation -- dealing with food service employees and given the name "Operation Sky Chef" -- began in April of last year after an American Airlines pilot commented that the coffee he drank aboard an aircraft tasted weak.
"Flight attendants went back and checked the coffee filters, and they were filled with heroin, six kilos of heroin within the coffee filter," Kelly said.
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-Bill