[url]http://www.wnbc.com/news/2263380/detail.html[/url]
Professional Federal Employees at their finest. All this time I thought is was back alley FFL's & CCW permit holders trafficing arms.

NEWARK, N.J. -- Prosecutors say a baggage handler at Newark Liberty International Airport used airplanes to smuggle guns from Alabama to northern New Jersey, where they were quickly sold on the street.

Antonio Marquette Lewis, 30, of Jersey City, was arrested Monday at the airport without incident, and charged with violating federal firearms laws. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Hudson County officials announced the arrest Wednesday.

ATF Special Agent Joseph Green said Lewis went to Alabama where he and at least two straw purchasers who bought guns for him purchased at least 18 handguns. He used his airport security clearance as an American Airlines employee to smuggle the guns aboard planes, in some cases tucked away inside his own baggage, Green said.


"Being an employee, he was able to get the guns on the planes," Green said. "He knew the baggage handlers down there."

The smuggling occurred before federal aviation authorities required all bags to be checked for weapons, Green said.

"This slipped through the cracks because of that," he said.

No one else had been charged in the case as of Wednesday, but Alabama authorities are continuing an investigation, Green said.

The case came to light when authorities in Jersey City arrested two people who had handguns with the serial numbers filed off. The guns were sent to a federal crime laboratory where the serial numbers were successfully detected, and used to identify the points of purchase.

The guns are being checked to see if they were used to commit any crimes.

At least six were bought by others for Lewis at a pawn shop in Selma, Ala. Lewis bought another 12 himself, using an Alabama driver's license, Green said. The purchases were made between June and September 2002.

Lewis was charged with dealing firearms without a license, and possession of firearms with defaced serial numbers. Both offenses are punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

He was released on $100,000 bail and subjected to electronic monitoring at his home.

American Airlines officials could not immediately say what his status was with the company.

He wasn't a federal employee. He worked for American Airlines.

10 years in a federal-pound-me-in-the-ass-prison.

How much could this idiot have made, anyway?  Reselling guns on the street doesn't strike me as a get rich quick deal.

I used to work at EWR, those people that work the bag room are the dregs of the area... at $7.00 you do not get the best help.