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Baggage handlers jailed in drug plot

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 8, 2007

ORLANDO - Two airline baggage handlers used their employee identification cards to enter restricted areas, bypass screeners and carry a duffel bag containing 14 guns and drugs on a commercial flight from Florida, according to court documents released Wednesday.

An anonymous tip to the Orlando Police Department led authorities to investigate the men aboard the Delta flight headed for Puerto Rico on Monday afternoon, said Carlos Baixauli, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Miami. Zabdiel J. Santiago Balaguer was questioned by security screeners, but released when no weapons or drugs were found on him, court documents said.

Thomas Anthony Munoz, 22, was arrested when he got off the plane at the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan. Inside the duffel bag he was carrying, authorities found 13 handguns, one assault rifle and eight clear bags containing a total of 8 pounds of marijuana, Baixauli said.

Balaguer was arrested late Tuesday. Munoz and Balaguer, both of Kissimmee, were charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possessing firearms in interstate commerce during a drug trafficking offense, court documents said.

Balaguer allegedly acted as a middleman between Munoz and a connection in Puerto Rico as part of a weapons and drugs scheme, authorities said.

Balaguer delivered guns and drugs to Puerto Rico several times himself and offered to pay Munoz as much as $5,000 to make the delivery to Puerto Rico, according to court documents.

The man in Puerto Rico had wired more than $1,800 to Balaguer last week, which was used to buy the guns and drugs, a federal agent's affidavit said.

Munoz and Balaguer worked for Comair, a subsidiary of Delta based in Cincinnati. Both passed federal background checks before employment, said Kate Marx, a Comair spokeswoman.

[Last modified March 8, 2007, 01:44:58]