Four commercial airline flight attendants have been arrested and charged by the Southern District of New York federal prosecutor’s office on May 7 for using a security loophole at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to smuggle drug trafficking funds to the Dominican Republic, totaling $8 million over the years.
These four flight attendants work on flights from New York City to the Dominican Republic for different international commercial airlines. All four have Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Known Crew Member (KCM) security clearance, allowing them to pass through special security channels at JFK Airport and other airports with less stringent checks than regular passengers. Exploiting this loophole since 2014, they have been smuggling cash from New York City drug dealers through JFK Airport to the Dominican Republic and then taking a cut, resulting in a total of approximately $8 million being smuggled out of the United States. Acting on tips from informants, the federal prosecutor’s office in the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested the four individuals on May 7 after conducting an investigation.
According to the indictment, the four defendants are 42-year-old Charlie Hernandez from West New York, New Jersey; 42-year-old Sarah Valerio Pujols from the Bronx in New York City; 34-year-old Emmanuel Torres from Brooklyn; and 35-year-old Jarol Fabio from Manhattan. Each of them is charged with one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, punishable by up to 5 years in prison, and one count of entering an airport or aircraft area in violation of security regulations, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Pujols and Hernandez also face an additional charge of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, punishable by up to 5 years in prison, while Pujols faces an additional charge of smuggling bulk cash, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Pujols and Fabio appeared in the Manhattan federal court on May 7, while Hernandez and Torres appeared in court on May 8.