A former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screener who enabled 150 pounds of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana to be smuggled through checkpoints at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in exchange for cash was sentenced Monday to 80 months in federal prison.
Naral Richardson, 32, of South Los Angeles was the catalyst for the scheme that involved three TSA screeners at LAX, said U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Morrow.
The judge said Richardson “showed no hesitancy” in setting the smuggling scheme into motion in 2011 by putting “screeners together with couriers.”
Richardson — the last of seven defendants in the case to be sentenced — admitted enabling five drug shipments to pass through security screening checkpoints at LAX.
During the “pass-throughs,” Richardson encouraged corrupt TSA screeners to look the other way as couriers carried suitcases containing multiple pounds of illegal drugs through the airport for distribution around the country.
As part of the scheme, Richardson arranged for the couriers and corrupt screeners to meet beforehand so they would recognize each other and the courier would get into the correct screening lane.
Defense attorney Michael Schaftler unsuccessfully arguing for a 60-month sentence, said his client was unsophisticated, “not very smart” and suffering from various emotional and intellectual “disabilities.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Herzog countered that Richardson deserved 87 months behind bars for being the “most culpable” defendant in the case.
“For all his intellectual challenges, he still knew how to facilitate the scheme,” the prosecutor said. “His conduct demonstrates what he is capable of.”
The scheme did not require “high-level functioning,” Herzog added.
Richardson apologized to the court, saying he “didn’t really understand what was going on” in the smuggling operation.
“I need a second chance to be out there with my (4-year-old) son,” the defendant said as family members looked on.
Richardson worked as a screener until he was terminated by the TSA in February 2011, and while employed at LAX “routinely allowed high-volume drug traffickers to pass drugs through his security screening lane for as much as $1,000 per pass-through,” prosecutors wrote in sentencing papers.
Previously sentenced were:
— former TSA screeners John Brandon Whitfield, 25, of Los Angeles, and Joy Lenisha White, 29, of Compton, who both got 70-month terms, and Capeline Sheri McKinney, 27, of Los Angeles, who were sentenced to 50 months behind bars; and
— drug couriers Duane Lewis Eleby, 30, of Downey, who was sentenced to 90 months in prison; Terry Dean Cunningham, 30, of Los Angeles, who received an 18-month term; and Stephen Anthony Bayliss, 30, of Los Angeles, who got a 41- month sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and IRS-Criminal Investigation unit, under the auspices of the Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
