Two Admit Smuggling Drugs Through Airport

ATLANTA -- Three people, including two who worked for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), admitted Wednesday to taking part in a cocaine and heroin smuggling operation at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Leslie Adgar, 42, of Decatur; Andre Mays, 24, of Atlanta; and Jon Patton, 44, of Lawrenceville, entered guilty pleas in federal court. Patton and Mays worked for the TSA while Adgar worked for Delta Air Lines during the smuggling operation.

Prosecutors said that in December of 2007, Patton made a deal with a confidential source to transport two kilograms of cocaine through Atlanta to New York. Patton wanted $5,000 for the first kilogram and $3,000 for any additional ones. Later that month, Patton and Mays met with the source, who gave them two kilograms of fake cocaine and $4,000 inside a piece of luggage. Both Patton and Mays were in uniform and on duty when they took possession of the drugs, officials said. Patton sent the carry-on bag through the x-ray machine at Hartsfield and then gave it to Adgar in the T concourse.

Adgar, who worked for Delta, boarded a flight to New York, where she delivered the drugs and was given the second half of the payment -- another $4,000. She then returned to Atlanta.

The same type of deal was made the next month -- this time involving a kilogram of fake heroin and $4500. A third and final transaction occurred in February.

Adgar and Patton pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine and heroin, which carry a statutory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Mays pleaded guilty to entering a secure airport area in violation of federal screening requirements, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.