LAX Airport is Becoming a Major Global Drug Trafficking Hub

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

From an ABC7 Eyewitness News Series

Some 80 million people fly through Los Angeles International Airport every year. And another 50,000 work there every day. That all adds up to an enormous and complicated ecosystem.

And amid all this energy is a massive problem that has been building for years - and nobody is talking about. Well, nobody except a sheriff some 2,000 miles away. Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Fla., says a large quantity of the drugs that end up in his jurisdiction first entered the country through LAX.

"Over and over on these domestic airlines from LAX, through suitcases drugs were smuggled here," Judd said, as he displayed luggage packed with narcotics at a press conference announcing a drug bust.

Through good police work, his agency cracked a big drug ring - and the bust illustrates a much larger problem.

"On one occasion, on one airline, six suitcases with this drug was smuggled into Orlando," Judd said. "They didn't so much as throw a pair of underwear in the suitcase to act like they were hiding the drugs. You think LAX has got a drug smuggling problem?"

The investigation began 4 years ago and involved multiple local and federal agencies, resulting in dozens of arrests. They didn't so much as throw a pair of underwear in the suitcase to act like they were hiding the drugs.

Who is Responsible for Stopping Drugs at LAX?

Judd told Eyewitness News one of the lessons he learned from the bust:

"It's so easy not to be caught. We see drugs pouring out of LAX. The traffickers know this. This was not a one-off event. This was an everyday event during the operation. They use this multi, multi-billion dollar travel industry as their go-to, to move drugs across this country."

He notes his county is just one small jurisdiction and says it's fair to assume similar operations running through LAX are happening all over the country. And he's right. An Eyewitness News investigation uncovered drug cases across the United States and the globe, all originating out of LAX. Multiple law enforcement sources say LAX likely is the drug trafficking hub of the world.

So the problem isn't just affecting Los Angeles - but nearly everyone. Who is responsible for stopping it? As Sheriff Judd and other law enforcement experts say, it's a shared responsibility.

TSA's Narrow Search Authority

The TSA, for example, is responsible for screening bags of every passenger that boards a plane - but they aren't looking for drugs.

"Our search authority is very narrow," said Jason Pantages, TSA's security director for LAX. "We search for weapons, incendiaries and explosives and we want to keep those out of bags and off of planes." LAX is one of the busiest airports in the world - and just looking at originations and destinations, it's the single busiest. They deal with hundreds of thousands of bags and people every day.

Pantages says searching for drugs cannot be part of TSA's job. "We don't have the ability to do that because we're not law enforcement officials. We're transportation security officers."

"We can't search for criminal activity. It's not within what we're able to do with our search authority." TSA screens bags brought onboard as carry-ons using an X-ray machine. But when bags are checked in, they are screened just for explosives, not for drugs. If the explosive detective system doesn't detective explosive material, the bag keeps moving.

LAPD's LAX Jurisdiction

When TSA agents do detect drugs, the first thing they do is notify law enforcement. That starts with the LAX police agency, headed by Chief Cecil Rhambo. He notes that his agency has a long list of responsibilities and crimes to monitor, from thefts to assaults to parking violations and, of course, drug trafficking.

But screening bags? "No," Rhambo says. "Bags are TSA."

DEA Investigations

The DEA also plays a role in cracking down on drug smuggling at the airport. "A lot of what they do is investigative," said Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of the DEA in Los Angeles. "A lot of what they do is try to stop the narcotics before they ever actually even make it to LAX. So part of the dilemma is if they're not going to look at bags - then who should be doing this?"

"We all have a role to play, right? Screening is not the role of the DEA." It's complicated because this airport is so complicated.

FBI's Federal Responsibility

The FBI also plays a role in enforcing drug laws, but only in a limited sense:

When airport employees try to use their credentials to smuggle narcotics past checkpoints. And when illegal drugs are found on a plane. But only if the doors to the cabin have been shut. While they are open, the plane is still under LAX police jurisdiction.

"It's complicated because this airport is so complicated," says FBI special agent David Gates.

Trained Dogs Searches

Even when you see trained dogs at the airport - only a few of them are trained to look for drugs. Most are focused on explosives.

HSI's International Scope

And Homeland Security is another agency that is involved. "We have approximately 40 special agents that reside there on a daily basis," says John Pasciucco with Homeland Security Investigations.

But those agents are primarily focused on international drug cases, he says. And like the DEA, their focus is on investigations, not screening bags. That appears to leave a gray area in terms of who is really in charge of stopping drugs from moving through LAX.

Pasciucco argues that the shared responsibility works well and the issue is not one of conflicting or overlapping jurisdictions. It's just about the sheer volume of people, bags and drugs that move through the airport on a daily basis.

That defines the problem. Agencies may be doing their job well but ultimately no one is actually searching all those bags for drugs.

No More Private Air Strips

The cartels figured all this out years ago, and Sheriff Judd says it's made their job easier. That's why it's rare now to see private drug planes fly into secret landing spots: There's no need.

"We've not seen an airplane, a small airplane, fly into a clandestine strip in decades," Judd says. "The infrastructure's already in place. The drug dealers don't have to create the infrastructure. It's here."

LA Logistics Hub

"Los Angeles, and the area around it, it is the number one hub for drug activity in the country," said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. "Mexican cartels use the Los Angeles area to get drugs into the country and then distributed throughout the country, and also internationally."

Estrada grew up in L.A. and is now a key part of the fight against the ruthless dealers that are now on our streets. The more drugs the cartels pour into the city, the more money they make and the more powerful they become.
Why L.A.?

Estrada said it is partly because of those long-established drug trafficking networks.

"Mexican cartels have trusted lieutenants and individuals in this area that helped bring the drugs into it, and then broker deals in the Los Angeles area," he explained. "There's a ton of drugs that get sold in the L.A. area."

Supply & Demand

While some of those drugs are distributed in L.A., huge quantities are shipped to global markets. It's big business and distribution is everything, and LAX is just one cog in the system. Southern California has become the cartels' unwilling partner.

"Number one, we have one of the busiest airports for passenger and cargo in the United States, if not the world," said John Pasciucco with Homeland Security Investigations. "We have the largest seaport over here, as well as we're 90 miles north of the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere. In addition, we have one of eight international mail facilities."

Pasciucco says smugglers are brilliant in finding ways to get the drugs out - they adapt, diversify and are constantly changing tactics. Their reward is money. Drugs like cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine are abundant in L.A. and as a result, they're cheap. But if you can get the drugs into other markets, like Canada, Australia or Japan, it increases in value 20-fold or more.

"You can get a pound of meth here for probably $800 in Los Angeles, and you could turn it into $200,000 with a 16-hour flight," explained Pasciucco when discussing the profit margin in New Zealand. From nondescript travelers to airport employees, that kind of money lures many people to become drug runners.

"We have a case right now where an individual was smuggling methamphetamine through LAX to Japan," said Estrada. "He was caught, and now he faces a very lengthy sentence. He told us he was going to get paid over $120,000, just for moving this one shipment."
Priority mail

But it's not just what's going out, it's also about what's coming in. Fentanyl has already reinvented itself. In 2018, I was shown a brick of pure fentanyl delivered from a lab in China - that's how it used to get here. "The U.S. government got pretty good at identifying those packages coming in and were seizing it," said Pasciucco. "I think the cartels saw it as an opportunity to kind of expand their portfolio, too."

Precursor Shipments

The cartels have figured out they can make their own fentanyl by bringing in the raw ingredients, which are known as precursor chemicals, which are legal.

"What we've seen at LAX specifically, is precursor chemicals flying Air Cargo into Los Angeles," said Pasciucco. In other words, packages airmailed from Asia to LAX.

With synthetics, like fentanyl, I mean, there's an unlimited supply of chemicals ... it's never-ending.
Matthew Allen, DEA in Los Angeles

The cartels then bring the chemicals over the border to their own labs in Mexico, synthesize it into fentanyl, and then smuggle it back to L.A. to be distributed around the world. Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of the DEA in Los Angeles, says it's given the cartels an unlimited supply.

"I mean, when you look at things like cocaine, heroin, things of that nature, you're talking about agriculture, right? You have a growing season, and it's time-consuming and it takes a lot of effort," explained Allen. "With synthetics, like fentanyl, I mean, there's an unlimited supply of chemicals. I mean it's never-ending. They just keep getting more and more and more."

And that's what will be hitting the streets of LA and everywhere else, in what is promising to be a busy travel season.

Sources ABC7, ABC7