[SecurityRatty] tag: cocaine

What would you do if you knew the Air Marshal on your plane was smuggling Drugs?

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:34:00 +0000

According to a recent USA TODAY article, Federal Air Marshals have been convicted of smuggling drugs, molesting children, abducting a female escort during a layover in Washington D.C., hiring a hitman to kill a spouse and many other criminal acts.

The ex-Air Marshal who was convicted of smuggling drugs apparently used his position to work with a drug dealer to carry cocaine and drug money with him on flights around the country. He was caught on tape telling an informant that he was "the man with the Golden Badge".

We should remember though, that with a current force of between 3,000 - 4,000 (exact numbers are confidential), there are bound to be a few bad apples in the bunch - that is the way in every profession.

What makes it much more alarming when we talk about Air Marshals gone bad is the fact that at 30,000 feet in the air - their authority is absolute. The last thing a passenger in a plane needs to be concerned about is the very person on the plane whose job it is to protect the passengers.

The Marshal's decision making skills should be beyond reproach. If their judgement is clouded over however, due to experimenting with the cocaine they are smuggling, the consequences could prove fatal.

Perhaps the fact that prior to 2001, the Air Marshal service had an annual budget of $4.4 million and 33 agents which exploded to $786 million and between 3,000 to 4,000 agents today might have something to do with undesirables falling through the cracks.

Not that rapid hiring needs are an excuse for allowing criminal behavior to go unnoticed. The office of Inspector General or Internal Affairs needs to get actively involved and properly supervise the agency so that rogue Marshals are not allowed to remain in the service.

Things are not always what they seem - just ask Eliot Spitzer.

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:17:00 +0000

In our daily consulting lives, we teach corporations to "expect the unexpected', that way, you will not be caught off-guard. The announcement yesterday afternoon that the former Attorney General (8 years) and New York State Governor (1 year), Eliot Spitzer was being investigated for his part in a prostitution ring caught a lot of people off guard.

A crooked politician getting his hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar has become so common over the years that it is hardly worth the raising of an eyebrow anymore - unless they are running for president, of course. It is a different story however, when the politician happens to be a tough "take-no-prisoners" crime fighter - especially one who had a reputation for coming down hard on organized crime.

Eliot Spitzer getting caught (of course he is innocent until proven guilty, but his statement yesterday makes no mention of innocence claiming that he: "acted in a way that violated my sense of right and wrong".)in a prostitution scandal is akin to the head of the DEA getting busted buying crack cocaine on a street corner or Batman "swooping" down on to the street to steal an old lady's handbag.

What lesson can we learn from this? To me, it is that you can't judge a book by it's cover. The Spitzer case is way "over the top" to what most of us will come across in our daily lives but it does teach us to keep our eyes open and look beneath the surface. If you are a business owner or a hiring manager, how many times have you hired someone because they looked "nice" or you had a "good feeling" about them? I hear that quite a lot.

Remember, a conman or conwoman, succeeds at what they do by lulling you into a false sense of security in order to achieve their goal. In other words, they "con" you. The con may be to get a job and once there they will steal your clients or fake an accident and go out on workman's comp. I currently have a case where we are investigating somebody for a client who landed a six figure a year salary and on the third day, they had an "accident" and spent the next several months laying around their apartment cashing checks.

If someone as "untouchable" as a State Governor can fool us, then a future employee, vendor, internet scam artist or street pick pocket can also do it. Protect your assests and safeguard your future.

While you're at it, expect the unexpected.

Cloned Trucks

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:37:32 +0000

Criminals are using cloned trucks to bypass security:

Savvy criminals are using some of the country's most credible logos, including FedEx, Wal-Mart, DirecTV and the U.S. Border Patrol, to create fake trucks to smuggle drugs, money and illegal aliens across the border, according to a report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
[...]

In August 2006, the Texas Department of Public Safety, on a routine traffic stop, found 3,058 pounds of marijuana and 204 kilograms of cocaine in a "cloned" Wal-Mart semi-trailer, driven by a man wearing a Wal-Mart uniform.

In another case, a truck painted with DirecTV and other markings was pulled over in a routine traffic stop in Mississippi and discovered to be carrying 786 pounds of cocaine.

This is the same problem as fake uniforms, and the more general problem of fake credentials. It's very hard to solve.

Friday Squid Blogging: Cocaine Smuggled in Giant Squid

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:22:25 +0000

This link is from 2004, but still....

Peruvian police say they have seized nearly 1,540 pounds (700 kilograms) of cocaine hidden in frozen giant squid bound for Mexico and the United States.