Miami International Airport surveillance video allegedly shows two Transportation Security Administration officers stealing money from the bags of passengers going through the screening process.
South Florida’s WTVJ/NBC 6 television station reported this week that released video footage allegedly shows TSA officers Josue Gonzalez, 20, and Labarrius Williams, 33, distracting passengers going through the security screening process and removing money from their bags.
The two men were arrested in July and are facing theft charges, and a third officer was arrested but had the charges against her dropped, the report said.
Law enforcement started investigating reports of theft at the airport’s Security Checkpoint E, and obtained the video footage that allegedly shows several instances of the pair taking cash from passengers.
The report said that one of the videos shows the men taking $600 from a passenger’s wallet, another shows the two men going through a pocket of a black bag, and then removing something from a bin and putting it into his pocket.
Another video allegedly shows one of the men pocketing an item removed from a passenger’s Louis Vuitton bag before returning the bag to the owner.
Both pleaded not guilty to the charges following the arrests.
The report said that Gonzalez was accepted into a state program that requires him to pay $700 to two different victims, complete 25 hours of community service, and surrender his airport security credentials.
USA Today reported in July that Gonzalez waived his rights during a formal interview at TSA Command Center in July, admitting to the thefts which he estimated in affidavits to be around $1,000 per day that the two men worked together.
Williams did not waive his rights or confess to the thefts, was denied acceptance into the program Gonzalez used and will stand trial, the report said.
“The Transportation Security Administration holds its Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) to the highest professional and ethical standards and has no tolerance for misconduct in the workplace,” the TSA told USA TODAY in an emailed statement in July. “We actively and aggressively investigated these allegations of misconduct and presented our findings to (the Miami-Dade Police Department) and are working closely with them. Any employee who fails to meet our fundamental ethical standards is held accountable.”
Miami International Airport is the nation’s busiest for international flights and handled 50.7 million passengers in 2022, according to the facility’s website.
Charles Kim ✉
Charles Kim, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years in reporting on news and politics.
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https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/miami-tsa-thefts/2023/09/14/id/1134501
