She was immediately arrested by the police.
Abuse of privilege
White, 41, flew from Dallas to San Diego, where she left and returned later that day to Boston. At the airport, White used the crew gate, which is a TSA-approved facility that allows airline employees to pass through without being screened.
“You have a KCM (Known Crew Member) card. You scan it, show your company ID and driver’s license, and walk right through,” a former Mesa Airlines flight attendant told The New York Post . “But, sometimes, you get a ‘random.’ That’s when you’re randomly selected for screening when you go through airport security.”
Unfortunately for White, this was the day she was chosen.
She is awaiting sentencing in late March after pleading guilty to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.
White used his flight attendant security clearance to smuggle drugs.
White is the latest flight attendant to use what the U.S. Attorney's Office in Southern California calls "flight attendant privileges" as a tool to transport drugs.
Like the protagonist in Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" (2019), flight attendants find frequent travel combined with lax security an attractive combination for smuggling. Paid by drug traffickers, some of them turn their perks into a side job: acting as "mugs" to transport contraband across the United States.
Back to White’s story. According to federal court documents, while she was being screened on October 4, 2022, at one of the screening machines at the San Diego airport, U.S. Transportation Security Administration officers noticed that White was shaking.
The machine detected a large mass in her abdomen. The substance was sampled. It turned out to be more than 3.33 pounds of fentanyl. The drug is 100 times more potent than morphine, and one kilogram is enough to kill 500,000 people, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Fentanyl has been linked to more than 70,000 deaths in the US in 2021, and the agency seized more than 379 million doses of fentanyl in 2022.
White pleaded guilty in federal court to possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute, facing up to 20 years in prison.
White admitted she tried to use her flight attendant privileges to avoid stricter security screenings in order to smuggle fentanyl.
“As part of her plea, White admitted that she used her status as a flight attendant, a position of trust, to facilitate the crimes,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.
Former beauty queen and flight attendant arrested
When former beauty queen - flight attendant traffics drugs
There have been several arrests of flight attendants for drug trafficking in the US, but only Marsha Gay Reynolds is a former beauty queen.
"There's a reason this is done so often," attorney Dennis Ring, who represents flight attendant Marsha Gay Reynolds, told The New York Post . "I think it's pretty common, but it's not caught that often."
Beauty queen Marsha Gay Reynolds became a JetBlue flight attendant. In 2016, the then 34-year-old was stopped at the security gate at LAX International Airport in Los Angeles, where she took off her Gucci heels, handbag and belt...
However, inside her luggage was 70 pounds (over 31.7 grams) of cocaine, with a street value of $2 million.
According to the US Department of Justice, Reynolds and a Jamaican man named Gaston Brown worked together to smuggle illegal substances on six separate occasions. Last year, Brown was sentenced to 165 months in federal prison for crimes including two counts of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.
In November 2022, Delta flight attendant Marcelo Chaves and his girlfriend were arrested on a flight from Brazil to Miami. According to Miami's Channel 10, US Customs and Border Protection said they were arrested for "possession and transportation of narcotics."
The pair were reportedly carrying drugs, including methamphetamine and ketamine, in plastic bottles. Chaves and his girlfriend admitted to “doing drugs in Brazil” but had no knowledge of the illegal items in their suitcases. They are now facing serious drug trafficking charges.
Chaves' attorney did not comment. A Delta spokesperson told The New York Post , "Delta continues to cooperate with law enforcement and the flight attendant in question has been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation."
However, the case of Zailee Zainal, a flight attendant for Malaysia's Malindo Air, is different. She was jailed for 9 years and 6 months, starting in late 2020, for being caught bringing drugs into Australia, but could be released early.
When Reynolds stopped at the security checkpoint at LAX airport, her luggage was filled with drugs.
The difficult situation of her daughter's serious illness prompted the airline to launch a fundraising campaign to help her family. "After that email, someone who I thought was a friend approached me as a carrier," Zainal said.
"I was very vulnerable and ready to do anything at that time."
The court heard Zainal underwent training for the role, learning to speak in code and walking confidently with a packet of drugs between his legs.
Between October 2018 and January 2019, she made a total of eight trips and smuggled more than 4 kg of heroin, with a street value of approximately $3 million.
Zainal's detention in Australia while awaiting sentencing has had a major impact on her family. Her husband, also a flight attendant, has been unable to work since the start of the global pandemic.
The judge said Zainal was "deeply remorseful" and had written a letter of apology, which he said was "unlikely to re-offend".
Zainal will be eligible for parole after about three years of serving his sentence.
The case of 4 flight attendants 'carrying' drugs: If they say they don't know, will they escape punishment?
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