5 Former Delta Airlines Workers Indicted On Drug Smuggling Charges

[+EdwardGlen]

http://www.freep.com/article/20110915/NEWS01/110915043/5-former-Delta-Airlines-workers-indicted-drug-smuggling-charges

 

Five former Delta Airlines employees were indicted on federal charges today for their alleged roles in a drug smuggling operation that involved sneaking marijuana-stuffed suitcases onto flights between Jamaica and Detroit.

 

Charged in the indictment are Christopher Bradley, 38, of Inkster; Cordell Coke, 37, of Canton; Kevin Jernigan, 50, of Dearborn Heights, Huram Joseph, 41, of Ypsilanti and Glenford Stephens, 48, of Lathrup Village.

 

The defendants were originally arrested in April as part of "Operation Excess Baggage," which revealed an inside job by baggage handlers in both countries who used employee codes and insider knowledge to get drugs past security.

 

The scheme was discovered in January 2010, when a drug-filled suitcase – whose baggage tag bore the name of an uninvolved passenger -- was discovered on a Jamaica-to-Detroit flight.

 

Authorities eventually discovered several more suitcases.

 

If convicted, the defendants face between five and 40 years in prison.