Five Boston airline employees charged in cash-smuggling sting

Five airline employees are accused of using their airport security clearances to secretly smuggle thousands of dollars in cash past security checkpoints at Boston’s Logan International Airport.

The ground operations crew members from JetBlue — Rupert Crossley, 25; Alvin Leacock, 27; Eric Vick, 24; and Anthony Trotman, 24 — and the customer service ramp agent from Delta, 31-year-old Dino Dunkley, were arrested on Thursday and charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the Transportation Security Administration.

Prosecutors claim the airline workers used their security clearance to work around TSA checkpoints and smuggle the $400,000 cash into safe areas, like passenger departure gates.

Dunkley, the Delta employee, has been suspended “pending the final outcome of an internal Delta investigation,” the company said in a statement.

If convicted, the men face up to 20 years in prison. The four Massachusetts men were arraigned Thursday and held until a detention hearing next week. Two of their lawyers believe that this is a manufactured case.

Trotman’s Lawyer Keith Halpern said, “I think this is a situation where the government created a crime and there’s no indication that Mr. Trotman had any predisposition to get involved in criminal activity, had done anything, there’s nothing in his background.”

Dunkley’s lawyer also defended his client, saying that he has a clean record and has been in this country legally for 17 years. He went on to say that his client is married with children and works two jobs.

According to the indictment, Homeland Security’s informant has a prior felony drug conviction and is an illegal immigrant. However, Homeland Security offered him favorable immigration status as long as he cooperated with them, which may come up as the case moves on.

The Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates Logan, released a statement about the arrests and investigation.

MassPort officials cooperated fully in the investigation, the company wrote, and added that all people who have “unescorted access” to secure areas of the airport, like these employees did, “undergo careful vetting which includes a criminal background check.”

Agencies/Canadajournal