4 Flight Attendants Charged With Smuggling Drug Money on Commercial Flights

Four flight attendants were charged Wednesday with various offenses relating to their alleged participation in smuggling drug money for many years to the Dominican Republic on commercial flights. The flight attendants used their “Known Crewmember” (KCM) status with the TSA, allowing them to pass through a special security lane at John F. Kennedy and other airports with less scrutiny. Approximately $8 million in cash was allegedly transported in their bags over the years-long smuggling operation when they flew from New York to the Dominican Republic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) in the Southern District of New York. Charlie Hernandez, 42, of West New York, Sarah Valerio Pujols, 42, of the Bronx, Emmanuel Torres, 34, of Brooklyn, and Jarol Fabio, 35, of New York, were each charged with one count of operating an unlicensed money transmission business and one count of entering an airport in violation of security requirements....