3 Delta employees indicted on drug charges

[DieselDragRacer]

Three Delta Air Lines employees have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges they tried to smuggle more than $600,000 worth of drugs through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Luis Marroquin, 35, of Atlanta, Carlos R. Springer, 41, of Hampton and Kelvin Rondon, 27, of Atlanta were indicted this week on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and heroin. Springer and Rondon were arrested Tuesday and Wednesday, while Marroquin remains at large, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta.


The three men are accused of trying to smuggle the drugs into the country via a commercial airline flight from Mexico.


U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said a Delta agent found a piece of unclaimed luggage on a baggage carousel on Jan. 13 with a tag corresponding to Flight 364 from Mexico City.


Customs and Border Protection agents inspected the luggage and found multiple packages of meth and heroin, Yates said.


Springer, the supervisor of the ramp employees who unloaded the luggage from Flight 364, was interviewed by federal agents, who searched his cellphone and found incriminating text messages between him and Marroquin, Yates said.


The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison and a fine of up to $10 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Homeland Security, U.S.



Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Delta Air Lines Security.
Anyone with information about Marroquin's whereabouts is asked to contact the Homeland Security tip line at 1-866-347-2423.

 

[outerlimits]

Was it really 3 Delta employees ,or just one with 3 different names ?

 

[180ToTheMarker]

This surprised me. I was under the assumption we outsourced our drug running.

 

[DieselDragRacer]

A fugitive Delta Air Lines employee, charged in an alleged scheme to smuggle drugs from Mexico through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, was arrested Tuesday in Florida.

Luis Marroquin, 35, of Atlanta, was arrested without incident by federal agents at a house in Coral Springs, Fla., according to federal officials in Atlanta.

Marroquin's girlfriend, Stephanie Baxter of Atlanta, was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, Baxter was concealing Marroquin's whereabouts and attempting to help him flee to Guatemala, where she planned to join him later.

Baxter was arrested Monday as she and an unidentified person attempted to load Marroquin's motorcycle onto a pickup truck at her apartment complex on Canterbury Road in Atlanta. Baxter planned to sell the motorcycle and send the money to Marroquin to help him flee the country, the complaint alleges. The person helping Baxter was questioned and released.

Marroquin, Carlos R. Springer, 41, of Hampton and Kelvin Rondon, 27, of Atlanta were indicted last week on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and heroin. Springer and Rondon were arrested last week.

The three men are accused of trying to smuggle the drugs, valued at over $600,000, into the country via a commercial airline flight from Mexico.
U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said a Delta agent found a piece of unclaimed luggage on a baggage carousel on Jan. 13 with a tag corresponding to Flight 364 from Mexico City.

Customs and Border Protection agents inspected the luggage and found multiple packages of meth and heroin, Yates said.

Springer, the supervisor of the ramp employees who unloaded the luggage from Flight 364, was interviewed by federal agents, who searched his cellphone and found incriminating text messages between him and Marroquin, Yates said.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison and a fine of up to $10 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Delta Air Lines Security.

 

[Tanker Clown]

Suprised it doesn't happen more often there. When your company pays as poorly as Delta you need to find a way to supplement your income.

 

[redflyer65]

You guys are missing the news that's right around the corner, Delta is looking to buy a Columbian drug field and processing plant to decrease the overhead. Discussions are on-going, so no detials to be released at this time.

 

[DieselDragRacer]

You guys are missing the news that's right around the corner, Delta is looking to buy a Columbian drug field and processing plant to decrease the overhead. Discussions are on-going, so no detials to be released at this time.

:laugh:

 

[180ToTheMarker]

You guys are missing the news that's right around the corner, Delta is looking to buy a Columbian drug field and processing plant to decrease the overhead. Discussions are on-going, so no detials to be released at this time.

We are buying a cocain plant to reduce the crack spread. Ba dum dum.

 

[Jar Jar]

Good thing the pilots go through security, could you imagine how much those regional kids would smuggle?

 

[Scoot 11]

Suprised it doesn't happen more often there. When your company pays as poorly as Delta you need to find a way to supplement your income.

Predictable. Boring, but predictable. You really need some new material kid.
But, I'll bet you're the funniest guy on the playground.

 

[CorpCaptain]

Wait for season 3 of "Locked up Abroad". Atlanta is the closest thing to a foreign country we have here in the states. Probably will make more than selling a motorcycle, once they are sentenced to probation that is.....

 

[scoreboardII]

You guys are missing the news that's right around the corner, Delta is looking to buy a Columbian drug field and processing plant to decrease the overhead. Discussions are on-going, so no detials to be released at this time.

Sorry buddy, but SWA is one Red Eye from Cancun away from the rampers figuring out how to pad their pockets for retirement. If they grew poppies in West Texas SWA would be in the news as well.

 

[C-150ETOPS]

Late 90's, AA MIA ramp was Pirates of the Caribbean. Dudes were disappearing. Some real professionals were making big money. Alot of copy cats got involved. Feds showed up and busted the copy cats accepting bribes to stash stuff on jets. The rampers were looting money from everybody. Even the Colombian Cartels looked upon them as disreputable thieves.

Funny thing was, the goverment admitted they didn't have enough money to bribe the big players.

Then again, there was the goverment itself. Any chance the big search teams, complete with bag scanners, would search the inbound jets for drugs from Colombia, ect? Nope, those teams were reserved for searching the southbound jets for the $$ Millions in cash heading south for laundering.

10 plus cars loaded with search team members swarming an outbound jet. All civil servants driving late mode BMW's, Mercedes, Lexus and Lincolns. I'm sure they had more than a few "kick arse" busts of $100,000 that started at $500,000

 

[Crash Pad]

For every one you catch there are X you didn't.

 

[dicko]

10 plus cars loaded with search team members swarming an outbound jet. All civil servants driving late mode BMW's, Mercedes, Lexus and Lincolns. I'm sure they had more than a few "kick arse" busts of $100,000 that started at $500,000

You do realize that the cars they seize are then used by those civil servants (AKA- The DEA) on the job ? The rest are auctioned.

Or, they steal them and nobody notices that 'Bob' just bought a $120,000 AMG for his birthday ... :erm:

 

[Dumb Pilot]

I'm not sure that a city in South Carolina would be the best place for a cocain plantation

 

[Freebrd]

You guys are missing the news that's right around the corner, Delta is looking to buy a Columbian drug field and processing plant to decrease the overhead. Discussions are on-going, so no detials to be released at this time.

+1 what's next, a rubber field in South America and a processing plant to make tires and plastics for Delta planes? :nuts::laugh:

 

[Freebrd]

Predictable. Boring, but predictable. You really need some new material kid.
But, I'll bet you're the funniest guy on the playground.

sensitive sensitive, lighten up Frances, it's a joke

 

[Scoot 11]

sensitive sensitive, lighten up Frances, it's a joke

No...I get jokes. What I dont get is how many Delta pilots nailed this guys old lady that he has to poke his nose on EVERY Delta thread to take his shots. Either that or he got a rejection letter and just can't get over it.

 

[C-150ETOPS]

You do realize that the cars they seize are then used by those civil servants (AKA- The DEA) on the job ? The rest are auctioned.

Or, they steal them and nobody notices that 'Bob' just bought a $120,000 AMG for his birthday ... :erm:

Yes I know they might use confiscated cars. I also know that every aspect of state/local/federal goverment has had more than a few instances of corruption. I saw the same thing in the late 1980's when visiting a south FL immigration office. There had to be 75+ high end, $50,000 cars parked on the employee only level of the garage. I knew something stank looking at the scene, years later, there were massive indictments/convictions there for taking bribes. I doubt MIA customs has been immune over the last 15 years.

As I mentioned, I saw many, many times where they had a mobile xray scanner looking at bags going into the holds. Looking for drugs? Nope, only for money. I've also seen them swarming the passengers on the jetbridges over and over again with teams and sniffer dogs. Looking for drugs? Nope, sniffing for money. Probably a hundred times I witnessed the same act, yet I never, ever saw them swarm an inbound flight from South America with the same zeal. A few of them would also swagger in with an attitude just like Denzel Washington's character in "Training Day" complete with expensive watches and gold. Sure, I've got no proof, but some what I saw, there probably was some inventory "leakage" of the confiscated cash. Haven't seen the same act lately though. My bet is the tactics have changed in response to losing the cash in the past.