The Corruptible TSA: Part II

This story reports that two TSA employees were arrested for taking bribes to allow large narcotic shipments pass through the Los Angeles airport.  I put up a post about a similar story last year, so I’ll raise similar questions again.

There is no rule against carrying drugs on airplanes, and carrying them did not violate any TSA regulations.  Enforcing the nation’s drug laws goes well beyond the TSA’s mandate.  As I said in my earlier post, big brother is watching you (but if you pay him enough, you can get him to look the other way).  Since when is it the TSA’s job to enforce the nation’s drug laws?

Despite all the inconvenience — and violation of our Fourth Amendment rights — the TSA puts us through, the TSA has never identified a single terrorist trying to board an airplane.

The story reports that “TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said he was not aware of other cases where agency screeners had taken bribes for allowing drugs to pass,” but in my earlier post I linked to this article noting similar arrests at Westchester County Airport and Palm Beach International Airport.  I am sorry to say this is some indication that Mr. Melendez has not been reading my blogs.  This was not an isolated or unique incident, and Mr. Melendez is either woefully ignorant about his own agency, or is trying to cover up previous incidents of a similar nature.

Randall G. Holcombe is Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics at Florida State University. His Independent books include Housing America: Building Out of a Crisis (edited with Benjamin Powell); and Writing Off Ideas: Taxation, Foundations, and Philanthropy in America .
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