Drug trafficking at LAX: As a new vulnerability invades airports, how can we stop it?

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Cartels are smuggling drugs freely on the planes we use to travel regularly, and as this new vulnerability invades Southern California airports, many are asking, “How can we stop it?”

Well, the problem is directly linked to one of the darkest days America has ever known: 9/11.

Those attacks served as a benchmark for our own vulnerability and led to a promise that it would never happen again. Thus was born the Transportation Security Administration, which has since had a remarkable record of protecting travelers.

But with the TSA so focused on weapons and explosives, cartels are now using airports, including Los Angeles, to distribute massive quantities of narcotics. Again, how can we stop them?

Who is in charge?

An Eyewitness News investigation found that no law enforcement entity is responsible for searching all those bags at airports for drugs. From the TSA to the Drug Enforcement Administration to the Los Angeles Airport Police to the FBI to Homeland Security – not a single one.

“We don’t have the capacity to do that because we’re not law enforcement officials,” said Jason Pantages, TSA’s federal security director at LAX. “That doesn’t align with what we can do with our research authority.”

So who should do it? Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of the DEA in Los Angeles, said monitoring is not the DEA’s role.

Airport Police Chief Cecil Rhambo said “the bags are TSA.”

“Typically, if there’s an alert that there’s drug trafficking at the airport, my team doesn’t respond,” said David Gates of the FBI. “We respond to very specific cases of drug incidents at the airport.”

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So it seems there is a grey area when it comes to who the Really tasked with stopping drugs from passing through LAX.

“I think one of the main issues is strictly volume,” said John Pasciucco of Homeland Security Investigations.

In 2001 – at the time of the September 11 attacks – 19,000 people died in the United States from drug overdoses. This number has since skyrocketed. Today, over the past three years, we have welcomed up to 110,000 people per year, a six-fold increase.

Is the way we monitor airports fit for our changing world?

The four-part Eyewitness News investigation is now drawing reaction from lawmakers who are examining the issue with the “greatest sense of urgency.”

Congressman Adam Schiff, a former prosecutor who handled drug cases at LAX, said he understands the complexities. He said solving this huge blind spot may require attention from the highest levels.

“It is our responsibility in Congress to ensure that we are providing oversight and pressing agencies for answers,” Schiff said. “It is a joint responsibility of the administration, through the Department of Transportation, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. »

“The top priority is to make sure that no one blows up this plane in flight, but we also have to make sure that the contents of this plane don’t kill as many, if not more, people on the ground,” he continued.

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Congressman Robert Garcia sits on the Homeland Security Committee, where they are well aware of the dangers of fentanyl. He agrees that something needs to be done.

“It’s going to take a lot more support from people across the federal government.” Quite frankly, the Department of Transport needs to get involved and play a leading role in this,” he said. “So I will, through this report, through some of your reports, address this issue with the Department of Homeland Security and others within the leadership of our department. »

Three thousand people died in the September 11 attacks, but in today’s dark world of drug addiction, a September 11 happens every week and a half.

As members of Congress wonder, we have heard nothing from the cabinet members whose responsibilities overlap with this issue: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

If they remain silent, it may be up to members of Congress to take it upon themselves to finally do something about a problem that has been ignored for far too long.