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Charlie Hernandez, 42, of West New York and three other accused mile-high drug mules used code words such as “lotions” – meaning drug cash – and “los tigres” (for their drug-dealing partners), an indictment alleges.
Each got a cut for slipping the cash through unscreened TSA security lanes for international commercial airline employees at JFK Airport, it says.
The Known Crewmember Program, or KCM, provides separate, expedited security lanes for approved personnel of the various airlines, according to the indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
"Flight attendants are ideal for smuggling bulk cash,” it says. “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.”
Busted by Homeland Security Investigations agents along with Hernandez were Sarah Valerio Pujols, 42, of the Bronx, Emmanuel Torres, 34, of Brooklyn and Jarol Fabio 35, of Manhattan.
"This investigation has exposed critical vulnerabilities in the airline security industry and has illuminated methods that narcotics traffickers are utilizing," HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Ivan Arvelo said after federal agents arrested all four defendants.
Hernandez was charged with smuggling at least $2.5 million between 2014 and 2019.
Based on what federal agents said was a cut of $1,000 to $2,000 for every $60,000 that was smuggled, he would have pocketed somewhere between $40,000 and $80,000.
Pujols, Torres and Fabio are accused of moving at least $1.5 million each, which would have brought them each considerably less.
Homeland Security Investigations agents and members of the NYPD began investigating the international drug trafficking and money laundering ring in 2018, the indictment says.
An informant led members of the El Dorado Task Force to Pujols, who’d been fired by an undisclosed airline that law enforcement sources said was Delta.
The informant allegedly gave $121,215 to Hernandez, who handed Pujols $61,215.
Customs and Border Protection agents at JFK then caught her with $60,000 in undeclared cash in her purse, the indictment says.
Things accelerated from there.
Hernandez, Pujols and the others were charged with various offenses, including money laundering, in connection with a scheme that HSI said began a decade ago.
The investigation included money drops that were secretly recorded, the agency reported.
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