Mini bottles of Dewar’s Scotch Whiskey are among a wide selection of those confiscated in a cache of stolen goods valued at more than $400,000.
Eighteen workers at John F. Kennedy Airport were arrested this week and charged in connection with the widespread theft of tens of thousands of mini bottles of liquor and other items from John F. Kennedy International Airport over the last five months.
Among those arrested were past and present truck drivers employed by Sky Chef, the food and beverage subsidiary for American Airlines, and three security guards employed by FJC Security Services Inc., and SCIS Air Security Corporation.
During the joint investigation – dubbed “Operation Last Call” – the defendants pilfered more than 100,000 of the mini bottles, as well as duty-free items – such as larger bottles of liquor, perfume, and cartons of cigarettes – with an overall estimated retail value of more than $750,000.
District Attorney Richard Brown made the point that what was especially disturbing about the crimes was the involvement of airport security allegedly involved. “… Security personnel entrusted with guarding against theft and maintaining security at the airport were allegedly involved in the scheme. If a terrorist wanted to breach airport security, the alleged actions of these defendants gave them a back-door opportunity to do so.”
According to the criminal charges filed, the defendants allegedly have stolen more than 57,000 mini bottles of various brands of liquor – including Dewar’s scotch, Absolut vodka, Courvoisier cognac and Baileys liqueur – worth approximately $400,000 between April 2012 and August 2012. The defendants are also alleged to have stolen a quantity of duty-free merchandise – such as perfume, quart bottles of liquor and cigarettes with an estimate worth of $40,000 during the same period.
A court-authorized search warrant was executed at the residence of one of the defendants and yielded 500 to 600 garbage bags filled with mini liquor bottles (each bag containing approximately 100 bottles) worth between $385,000 and $420,000, as well as $34,000 in cash.
Sky Chef, Inc., a subcontractor for American Airlines at JFK Airport, assembles the liquor mini bottles that are loaded onto commercial aircraft to be served to passengers in-flight. Following a flight, Sky Chef employees are responsible for transporting any unsold merchandise from the aircraft back to a storage facility on the airport grounds. The Sky Chef drivers remove the bottles from the food/beverage storage carts onboard the aircraft and place them in thick medium-sized grey plastic bags which are used on American
Hundreds of grey plastic bags used by Skyway Chefs to transport unsold liquor from flights were found at the home of one of the defendents.
Airlines aircrafts.
In carrying out the thefts, Sky Chef drivers would remove the unsold mini liquor bottles from the plane and either transport them to their personal vehicles in the employee parking lot or sell the stolen liquor to co-workers on the loading docks.
Depending on the type and brand of liquor, black market prices allegedly ran from fifty-five cents for a bottle of Baileys to a dollar twenty-five for a bottle of Courvoisier. In-flight a mini bottle of Dewars, Courvoisier or Baileys is sold for seven dollars.
Further allegations point to security guards being given quantities of the mini liquor bottles in return for not carefully inspecting the Sky Chef vehicles passing through the checkpoint areas with the grey bags.
Authorities say the scheme was first uncovered earlier this year when the Port Authority Inspector General’s office got information about Sky Chef employees stealing liquor at Kennedy Airport. Based on the information, the Offices of the Port Authority Inspector General and the District Attorney’s Airport Investigations Unit commenced a joint investigation.
In the ensuing weeks and months, investigators conducted extensive surveillance of the defendants and made 57 undercover buys of over 57,000 min-bottles of liquor. The evidence obtained from those observations and buys formed the factual basis for the criminal complaints filed in Queens Criminal Court.
The defendants are variously charged with third-degree bribe receiving, receiving a reward for official misconduct, second-, third- and fourth-degree grand larceny and second-, third- and fourth- degree criminal possession of stolen property.
Most of the defendants were arrested after they were summoned to attend a staged security meeting at the airport. Among those arrested are seven local residents.
Arrested Sky Chef Truck Drivers:
Frankliyn Gill, 64, of 103-18 116th Street in Richmond Hill, Kelvin Gomez Nunez, 32, of 1743 Norman Street in Ridgewood, Elvin Imbert , 37, of 87-06 104th Street in Richmond Hill, Ablam KlouT SE, 44, of 102-30 134th Street in Richmond Hill, Arkadiusz Szmitko, 32, of 60-22 Linden Street in Elmhurst, Security Guards, Jose Baez, 50, of 72-15 62nd Street in Glendale, Stalin Pinossimbana, 20, of 107-16 75th Street in Ozone Park.
By Patricia Adams
