In Plane Sight: Drug agents searching passengers for cash at airport gates
(InvestigateTV) — That passenger standing next to you at the departure gate may actually be a plain-clothes drug agent.
InvestigateTV recently tailed U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force officers as they walked, otherwise unnoticed, from gate to gate at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Reporters watched them search passengers right after they scanned their boarding passes.
“He just approached me, and he asked me for my ID,” film director Tabari Sturdivant said. “He didn’t state who he was. He just asked me for ID, and I thought he was a Delta agent. He had airport credentials on, and so I gave it to him immediately.”
Sturdivant was flying to Los Angeles for a film project last year when he was approached by the DEA task force officers. They searched his bag in front of the other passengers boarding the flight, according to a video recorded by an onlooker.
