TSA officer tried smuggling meth into LAX airport, feds say. Now he’s been charged
A 39-year-old TSA officer is accused of smuggling meth into the Los Angeles International Airport, federal officials said.
Michael Williams, 39, of Hawthorne, California was arrested and charged with attempting to distribute methamphetamine on Wednesday, March 2, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California said in a news release
An attorney for Williams was not immediately listed in public court records.
Undercover agents suspected Williams was smuggling narcotics past Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at LAX in 2020, the news release says.
Williams picked up the meth days before his shift at the airport, the news release states. He planned to exchange the drugs in a backpack for money in the men’s bathroom in the secure part of airport, officials said.
He delivered the package, thinking the drugs were real, and was caught on camera in his TSA uniform leaving the bathroom, prosecutors said, where he was paid $4,000.
But he had actually delivered drugs to an undercover agent, the release says.
Williams faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 6:17 PM with the headline "TSA officer tried smuggling meth into LAX airport, feds say. Now he’s been charged."
