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The Justice Department has charged four flight attendants for using their special security privileges to smuggle the proceeds of illegal drug sales out of the United States.
Charlie Hernandez, 42; Sarah Valerio Pujols, 42; Emmanuel Torres, 34; and Jarol Fabio, 35, are all facing federal felony charges of operating an unlicensed money transmission business and violating airport security requirements.
Prosecutors said that the flight attendants were part of the Known Crewmember Program, which allows airline employees to go through a separate, expedited security lane before going to the terminals.
"In effect, given these loosened security procedures, KCM privileges allow flight attendants to bypass airport security with large quantities of cash without that cash being seized," prosecutors wrote in the criminal complaint.
Officials said the four managed to smuggle $8 million out of the United States and into the Dominican Republic since 2014.
"As alleged, these flight attendants smuggled millions of dollars of drug money and law enforcement funds that they thought was drug money from the United States to the Dominican Republic over many years by abusing their privileges as airline employees. Today's charges should serve as a reminder to those who break the law by helping drug traffickers move their money that crime doesn't pay," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement on Wednesday (May 8).