Summary Four flight attendants pleaded guilty to smuggling $8 million drug money through JFK. Homeland Security revealed vulnerabilities in airline security during the investigation. U.
S. Attorney committed to stopping drug proceeds, with maximum sentences up to five years. The four flight attendants who were caught smuggling drug money through John F.
Kennedy International Airport (JFK) have all pleaded guilty to the charges and now face considerable prison time. The case Over the last eight-year period, four flight attendants, Emmanuel Torres, 34, Jarol Fabio, 35, Sarah Valerio Pujols, 42, of New York, and Charlie Hernandez, 42, of West New York, New Jersey, smuggled nearly $8 million in drug money from New York’s JFK to the Dominican Republic using the TSA’s Known Crewmember (KCM) lane. Two of whom were employed with Delta Air Lines .
The flight attendants were caught thanks to a joint effort by the Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the New York Police Department. All four defendants were arrested on May 7th. In a statement , HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Ivan J.
Arvelo said this about the arrest: “As alleged, the defendants knowingly smuggled large amounts of illicit money linked to the sale of narcotics, to include fentanyl, and took advantage of airport security checkpoints by using their trusted positions as flight attendants. This investigation has exposed critical vulnerabilities in the airline security industry and has illuminated methods that narcotics traffickers are utilizing. Today’s announcement should serve as a warning to all airline personnel: HSI New York will not tolerate employees’ attempts to abuse their power for the sake of transporting illicit goods.
I commend El Dorado Task Force’s Transnational Criminal Enterprise Investigations Group and our partners in the public and private sectors for recognizing the seriousness of this issue.” Investigators first learned of the money laundering ring's existence in October 2021. Subsequently, it was found that flight attendants working the routes would smuggle money out of the country for a fee.
The four were caught during an operation where two cooperating witnesses were used to set up the defendants. One of the witnesses gave Hernandez $121,215 in drug money. He then divided the money in half with Pujols and moved the cash to the Dominican Republic on their next flight.
The sentence According to the Washington Times , Torres and Fabio smuggled at least $1.5 million each from 2015 to 2023. Hernandez and Pujols smuggled roughly $2.
5 million and $1.5 million, respectively, from 2014 to 2019. U.
S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that: “These four flight attendants abused their privileges as flight attendants to move money for drug traffickers. My office is committed to staunching the illicit flow of narcotics proceeds in all of its forms.
These guilty pleas show that the sky is not the limit when it comes to law enforcement’s reach.” The flight attendants were each charged with one count of unlicensed money transmission and one count of entering an airport or aircraft violating security requirements. These carry maximum sentences of five and ten years, respectively.
In addition, Pujols is also charged with a count of bulk cash smuggling, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for this fall and early next year. Prosecutors will seek to make these defendants an example to deter future violators and seek the maximum possible sentence.
This is according to law enforecement officers involved in an investigation..
