Ex-JetBlue Worker Jailed for Smuggling Drug Money Through Logan Airport

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A former JetBlue Airways employee was sentenced Thursday for smuggling thousands of dollars of what he believed to be drug money past security checkpoints at Boston’s Logan International Airport.

Alvin Leacock, 29, of Dania Beach, Fla., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel to 18 months in prison, one year of supervised release and ordered to pay a fine of $4,500. Leacock pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of illegally entering an airport area with intent to commit a felony.

A federal undercover operation was initiated at Logan Airport in August 2012, after Homeland Security agents discovered lapses in airport security and the potential for airline employees to smuggle contraband around the employee security system. Alvin Leacock was one of several individuals identified as a potential smuggler.

On two occasions between October 2012 and December 2012, Leacock used airport security credentials to evade Transportation Security Administration checkpoints and smuggled $107,000, which was represented to be drug proceeds, from a non-secure airport area to the secured passenger departure area of Logan. Leacock was paid $4,500 as compensation from a cooperating witness. Unbeknownst to Leacock, the cash smuggling plan was part of an HSI undercover sting operation.

Co-defendant Dino Dunkley, 32, of Mattapan, and a former Delta Airlines employee, pleaded guilty yesterday to the similar charges as Leacock and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8, 2016.

Three other airline workers identified in the investigation were previously sentenced for similar offenses. In January 2015, Rupert Crossley was sentenced to two years in prison and Anthony Trotman was sentenced to 14 months in prison. Eric Vick was sentenced in May 2015 to 18 months in prison.