e flight attendant accused of trying to smuggle 70 pounds of cocaine through Los Angeles International Airport hopped a flight across the country the day after she abandoned the drugs and sprinted away from a security checkpoint, investigators said Thursday.
Marsha Gay Reynolds, 31, of Queens, N.Y., flew back to New York City from LAX less than 24 hours after she dropped a suitcase loaded with cocaine and ran away from a Transportation Safety Administration checkpoint inside Terminal 4, according to Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Los Angeles.
Reynolds, who worked for JetBlue airlines, managed to escape from the terminal and flew back to New York the next day, Eimiller said. She may have worked as an attendant on the flight she took back to New York, according to a law enforcement source who previously spoke to the Los Angeles Times on condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to discuss the case.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents took Reynolds into custody Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
Reynolds’ second flight may not have tripped any alarms because the TSA had trouble identifying her as the woman who abandoned the cocaine inside LAX on March 18, according to Marshall McClain, president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Assn.
Airport and airline staff are not subject to routine security screenings at LAX. But Reynolds was randomly selected for an additional screening after she scanned her identification badge at a TSA checkpoint.
TSA officers checked Reynolds’ identification Friday night when she scanned her badge, but were unable to retrieve that information after she abandoned her luggage and ran.
“They check your ID on the reader to make sure that it’s valid, they look at you to make sure what we’re looking at in the system is you, and then the next 100 folks come through. So it’s stored, but there’s no way for whoever is working that reader to print it out, or back it up,” McClain said. “There was a pretty big delay. Friday night, all law enforcement knew is that it was a flight attendant.”
The TSA referred all questions to the DEA, which in turn referred a reporter to the FBI. Both agencies are investigating Reynolds’ case.
Ultimately it was federal investigators, not the TSA, who confirmed Reynolds’ identity, according to LAX Police Chief Pat Gannon.
McClain said Reynolds would have easily been able to shepherd the cocaine through security had she not been selected for a random screening. LAX is far from the only airport in the nation that allows airline staff to breeze through security, but McClain described the streamlined screening process as a major “security loophole.”
“The fact that flight attendants can be in their plain clothes, not even actually working, and have the ability to bypass screening with their luggage, that’s a serious problem,” he said. “That’s a luxury I don’t believe we can afford right now.”
Gannon said the TSA called airport police to notify them of an unattended bag, but they did not mention the fact that Reynolds had run from the area.
“We get these calls regularly, and obviously, we didn’t know the extent of it until we got there,” he said.
Reynolds appeared in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Thursday afternoon to answer felony drug charges. A judge ordered her held in lieu of $500,000 bail, which was immediately posted by her parents and a local church pastor, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
The judge stayed her release until Friday, allowing federal prosecutors time to consider an appeal to the decision.
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Wow is all I can say . Al pastor involve
Now look what the pastor doing with ppl offering
So why she neva leave d country ? Smh
Good fi har dat shi poss bail..Buuut smaddy nah guh waan back dem money are dem drugs? :bingung :bingung
mi just curious to see a which man she was traveling with as the news say …she nah do much time ..she will sing ……mi curious to see if is one of the hype man dem …clothes thieve and hustlers always hype like the thing legal ..smh ….i will just wait and see..they keep the news interesting i must say
Well at least she have up her bail money !
Marsha been in the game long time she know what she doing.
So now all who thought they were tipped off can see it was random. One article said she was deemed suspicious after she was heard talking on her cell ” in a foreign language ” ( otherwise known as patois – so we know she’s Jamaican so let’s see it she got weed or money).
If they were tipped off they’ would’ve had all ends covered so she couldn’t run go nuh weh let alone go thru airport after the fact…. Shi too raas brave and dry yeye to… Cah if mi run weh left dem amount ah dem kind ah things deh ah shootout and roadblock dem haffi ketch mi inna….some Dudus type ah wantedments mi woulda deh pan…
An now oonuh know who the coke belongs to – PASTOR!
That person can’t be worried both getting back money or drugs them must a worry about where to go and hide because them a drill she to find out is who give her it . That person goodly on a toilet from this happen
Time she take fly to New York, first flight to Jamaica and hop over to Cuba, no extradition treaty with the U S. Clearly she had no contingency plan. When you moving that kind of weight. You must always have a backup plan when shit hit the fan. The D A going to want bill and receipts to prove that half mil was not I’ll gotten gains. Thus the release delay. Me sure if the Proswcutor had any idea she could post bond. He wouldn’t have set any. The news seh the D A seh she is a flight risk.
de fact dat she run from dem a the airport put her at flight risk,suh no bail is dem fuss argument beforee the come to her with an offer
(Simplicity Soon Sign In)
Oh suh she did inna plain clothes is oh…chile u corner dark..dem post up di money quick een, Pastor who that post dah bail? mama gots links inna and outta di “wurl”
If she is a flight risk them not going to give her bail. All Jamaicans a flight risk thou Kmt that them a use to get to the bottom of it . Further more she just saw what happen wid the bombing and the extra dogs at the airports Weh she ago wid so much . Greed u call that
Sumadi say Marsha go NY go delete har social media and gi weh har dawg before she hand harself in
JET BLUE HAVE THE MOST DRUG RUNNERS AND THIEVE. they had to up dem corporate security as like it was a government agency ….nuff man escape prison because they fire them first ,because who nah give buddy pass to people who was go west or come from west ..lucky dem lucky . nuff man get bite via jet blue from the flight attendant dem to the baggage handler dem …. the smart one use them luck on another airline. jet blue is like a country bus from west chances if u stop it u will find some herb.
She have time fi delete social media she lucky
Marsha, Marsha, Marsha! !!!
What a beautiful exotic lady omg why shi choose to take dis road only God know I hope everything work out
They waiting on L.A to see if they contest bail.Keep in mind it happened under that,jurisdiction as well.If la have no issues with it then it can be executed.
Well at least she pull one last shift before turning herself in,she gonna need every penny for then,defense fund.
Let,me guess she gonna run again with this I didn’t know what in the bag bs or it wasn’t me you saw.smdh
Girl you know better don’t take anything from anybody to travel with further more you a flight attendant you held to even higher standards.
Just take you time and face the music.
A hope the rest a them flight attendants open them an l learn all the one Sherian a She next bout she go do batty an bleach out are self like mi nuh know wa if you nuh be careful a you next Punkin Open you you see wa happen cause you did a f**k Brady under the quite an carry thing fi him
WOW, this is serious and there will be a lot of ramifications. How can a flight attendant or evade the law in this regard–after being flagged with so much cocaine? The TSA have a lot to answer to. Da girl ya really skill though…
I hope they sink her and send her to hell. Have job but not satisfied. I bet the bitch nuh have a f**king thing but clothes and social media ratings. A di man prison dem fi send her too stupid and greedy. People a sell drugs fi hype pon social media now lol… what a set state of affairs for black people. Now the whole world know about you and your future dark. and the bitch dem weh fly pon plane hype yuh f((k lol hype outta this world lol
Mi say if yuh want too balls fi buy just check dah track star yah.
LOL!!!
I hope is not the Patois really give her whe. Cause everybody know LAX full of theifing police, both directions. They stereotype us, so if you can’t lose the accent, then don’t talk, especially when you nah roll tidy. I think she got away so many times because she work for the airline that she became sloppy, anyway mi nuh endorse the Coke thing still, it carry evil and bad luck.
……….and we a give Usain Bolt credit fe him speed pon de track, meanwhile da gal ya a bolt har way inna a Airport. It look like sey a she did a give de biggest offering from har “mule” job, because mi still a wonda how de Pastor man run een a dis so fast?
When mi ere say airline ooman run off mi tink a did Dougie Platt n Bum. But a JetBlue and Dougie a bag handler fi Delta. I just keep getting these dancehall ladies confused.
:thumbup :thumbup
Some a unno dunce bad! The role of a pastor is not to judge! If a pastor can help he help! Moreover this girl and her mom were so actively involved in church
She just made a Dumm choice
if it was me, dem would ha affi find mi. i hope she have some millions or hundreds of thousands saved in offshore accounts for when she get out….