A former Delta Air Lines employee and two TSA security officers have both pleaded guilty to charges that they were involved in drug smuggling.

According to the charges levied against the three former airline industry employees, they were involved in a heroine and cocaine smuggling operation based on Atlanta’s Harstfield-Jackson Airport.

Jon Patton, Andre Mays and Leslie Adgar (formerly of Delta Air Lines) were all charged earlier today. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) came across the drug operation when a secret agent was sent to broker a deal with Patton. During this encounter, Patton charged $5,000 to transport a kilogram of cocaine and two kilos of the drug were then carried past security and onto a Delta Air Lines flight.

The DEA actually used artificial cocaine in order to charge the three employees. Patton and Mays, knowing full well what was in the luggage, took it, within their capacity as TSA employees. Adgar then was to await the arrival of the drugs in New York, where he would collect the package.

Both Adgar and Patton ended up pleading guilt to the planned distribution of cocaine and heroine and now face anywhere from 10 years to life in prison. Mays, however, will likely face no more than one year in prison, as he was charged with the misdemeanour of bypassing security screening and thus entering the airside of the airport illegally. The three airline industry employees are expected to be sentenced in September.

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