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»Inside the sky-high world of flight attendant drug smuggling«
Terese White, 41 years old, was scheduled to fly to Boston. Instead, she was taken into custody.
In October of 2012, White was a flight attendant for Mesa Airlines traveling from Dallas to San Diego. She left the SoCal airport between flights and returned later that day to fly from San Diego to Boston. According to her plea bargain, White, a resident of Dallas, “attempted to utilize the Known Crew Member queue” – a TSA security line that allows airline personnel to pass through with less scrutiny.
You possess a KCM card. An ex-Mesa Airlines flight attendant told The Post, “You scan the card, present your company ID and driver’s license, and walk right through.” “But, sometimes, you get a ‘random.’ When you are randomly selected to undergo the same security procedures as everyone else.
Unfortunately for White, she was chosen on this day.
Terese White, a flight attendant for Mesa Airlines, recently pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl after attempting to pass through security with drugs on her person.
After pleading guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, she is currently awaiting sentencing. White is only the latest flight attendant to utilize her “privileges as a flight attendant” to smuggle drugs, as described by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.
Similar to the protagonist in Quentin Tarantino’s film “Jackie Brown,” dishonest flight attendants find frequent travel and lax security to be an alluring combination. Paid for by drug dealers, some of them use their privilege to transport contraband around the United States by acting as mules.
Attorney Dennis Ring, who represented convicted flight attendant Marsha Gay Reynolds, told The Post, “It stands to reason that this [drug smuggling by flight attendants] is common.” I would assume that this is extremely common, although they are rarely caught.
Marsha Gay Reynolds, a former beauty queen who worked as a flight attendant for JetBlue, was apprehended for attempting to transfer about 70 kilograms of cocaine, worth approximately $2 million.
He noted that random tests are an unusual event.
A former flight attendant described a colleague who “would travel to Mexico and bring back Ritalin, Xanax, and Adderall.” “Since she lacked prescriptions, she would return with boxes and sell [the drugs] here.”
According to the United States District Court lawsuit, White appeared reluctant to approach the “advanced imaging technology machine” – the full-body scanner that passengers enter for low-energy X-rays. According to the allegation, White began shaking once inside.
Typically, flight crews are pre-approved for relatively lax airport security.
She had valid cause to be anxious. The machine immediately detected something attached to her midsection.
White removed what was characterized as “a large mass wrapped around her abdomen,” but she argued that it was “not what you think it is.”
She informed the screening committee that the substance was a “mercury pack” intended for weight loss. Dr. Abe Malkin, a weight-reduction specialist in Los Angeles, told The Post, “I’ve never heard of a’mercury pack’ for weight loss. To my knowledge, it does not exist.”
However, an examination of the pack revealed the truth: according to the complaint, White attempted to smuggle and transport more than three pounds of fentanyl.
In October, Mesa’s White was apprehended with three pounds of fentanyl on her body.
According to a statement from the United States Attorney’s Office, White pled guilty in December of last year and stated that she “attempted to use her position as a flight attendant, a position of trust, to facilitate the offense.”
On March 24, she is set to be sentenced. Her lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. Mesa Airlines did not comment.
The former flight attendant ascribed White’s failed drug-smuggling scheme to bad luck and poor planning. “She likely would have avoided arrest if not for the random. Also, if the drug pack had been in her suitcase instead of strapped to her body, I’m not sure she would have been apprehended.”
White attempted to get past the crew member security line but was called aside for a random inspection.
What she does know is that her fellow flight attendants are angry with her since she has ruined a good opportunity for them.
“Everyone is rather irritated. Through KCM, [they] are now routinely assigned at random. “One individual ruins it for everyone,” the source stated. “Doing something similar to [what White did] is both f*cking courageous and f*cking stupid. You lose both your employment and your ability to travel abroad. I would never take such a risk.”
While White approached her random screening in a reserved manner, some airline staff are more brash. At least initially, this was the situation with beauty queen-turned-JetBlue flight attendant Marsha Gay Reynolds. As reported by The Post in 2016, when the then-34-year-old was halted for screening at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), she kicked off her Gucci heels, dropped her bags, and fled.
When flight attendant Reynolds was detained at a security checkpoint at LAX, she fled, leaving 70 kilograms of cocaine in her luggage.
Seventy pounds of cocaine with a street worth of $2 million were found in her suitcase.
Reynolds reportedly boarded a ticket to New York and hid at a Hilton Hotel near JFK before giving herself up.
Gaston Brown, according to the United States Department of Justice, recruited Reynolds for her criminal activities. The Department of Justice alleged that the two had coordinated six times to carry illegal narcotics. Brown was sentenced to 165 months in federal prison last year for two counts of cocaine possession and distribution conspiracy.
Flight attendant Marcelo Chaves was detained for “possession and transportation of narcotics” in November.
Jail of Miami-Dade County
In November of last year, Delta flight attendant Marcelo Chaves and his boyfriend were arrested while exiting a trip from Brazil to Miami. Robert Brisley of US Customs and Border Protection, according to Miami’s station 10 news, stated that they were arrested for “possession and transportation of narcotics.”
According to the report, the two were allegedly transporting methamphetamine and ketamine in plastic bottles. Chaves and his boyfriend admitted to “doing drugs in Brazil,” but they were unaware of the contraband in their suitcase. They are now facing allegations of felony drug trafficking.
The attorney for Chaves remained silent. The off-duty flight attendant in question has been suspended until the results of the investigation, according to a statement from a Delta spokeswoman to The Post.
Flight attendant Rohan Myers was apprehended during screening for attempting to conceal roughly seven pounds of cocaine.
Office of Rohan Myers, Broward Sheriff
Some flight attendants are more attractive than others. Former Caribbean Airlines pilot Rohan Myers concealed a sophisticated contraption in his pants. According to a criminal complaint filed in 2015, while on the job, he wore “spandex-type compression garments” with approximately seven pounds of cocaine concealed in molded inserts.
Myers, like White, was killed by an unexpected search. Customs authorities got concerned once he began “sweating profusely and responding to questions with his head lowered.” Myers acknowledged that Bigga NFI had offered him $10,000 upon delivery of the medicines.
The counsel for Myers and Caribbean Airlines did not comment.
“Flight attendants are easy pickings for the calculating drug smuggler,” said Dennis Ring, Reynolds’ attorney. “The flight attendants lack worldly knowledge. I estimate that fifty percent of the time, these individuals are unaware of the gravity of their actions. People have no idea that this is a federal crime. They do not ask many questions.
»Inside the sky-high world of flight attendant drug smuggling«