Former LAX Baggage Handler Arrested for Cocaine Smuggling

LOS ANGELES – Alberto H. Botello, a 23-year-old former baggage handler employed at Los Angeles International Airport, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly using his credentials to pass cocaine through security.

According to authorities, Botello, of South Gate, was charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and to distribute cocaine. His co-defendants, Adrian Ponce, 28, and Alberto Preciado Gutierrez, 27, both of South Gate, were also former baggage handlers and were arrested by law enforcement in the Spring of 2016.

According to court documents, Ponce, Preciado Gutierrez, and Botello facilitated the ability of third-party couriers to use commercial airlines to smuggle kilogram ‘samples’ of cocaine from Los Angeles to drug customers on the East Coast. At the time of the conspiracy, Preciado Gutierrez was a supervisory baggage handler employed by Swissport International at LAX.

During the investigation, law enforcement seized a kilogram of cocaine in Preciado Gutierrez’s possession on December 16, 2015. According to court documents, the seizure was made in a restroom in Terminal 3 at LAX, where Preciado Gutierrez was delivering the cocaine to a courier who was holding a boarding pass to travel on a JetBlue flight to New York only an hour later. After this incident, Preciado Gutierrez was terminated by Swissport.

The following day, law enforcement interviewed Ponce, who had been taken into custody while waiting for Preciado Gutierrez outside Terminal 3. According to court documents, Ponce gave a written statement in which he admitted that, ‘on multiple occasions,’ he and Preciado Gutierrez had used Preciado Gutierrez’s supervisory status as an LAX employee to smuggle drugs to out-of-state drug customers by using third-party couriers who had booked flights from LAX to the East Coast and who were willing to take the drugs on a commercial flight in exchange for payment.

‘Airport employees, who by virtue of their jobs have special access to secured areas, play an important role in the security of air travelers and our national security,’ said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker. ‘Instead of protecting our security, these defendants are charged with abusing their special access for personal profit and exposing unsuspecting air travelers to nationwide drug trafficking.’

Botello made his initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles. If convicted, he faces serious consequences. An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

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