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From Los Angeles Times

Another tear in the airport security net

Federal authorities and Virgin America are trying to explain how Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi was able to get through layers of airport security — and then avoid arrest for five days after officials discovered he was a stowaway.

by Andrew Blankstein and Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

July 1, 2011

Virgin America Flight 415 from New York to Los Angeles was already two hours into its journey when some passengers in the upscale "Main Cabin Select" section complained that the man seated in 3E reeked of body odor.

A flight attendant asked Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi for his boarding pass and was surprised to see it was from a different fight and in someone else's name. She alerted authorities, and Noibi went back to sleep in his black leather airline seat. When the plane landed, authorities chose not to arrest Noibi, allowing him to leave the airport.

On Wednesday, Noibi was arrested trying to board a Delta flight out of Los Angeles. Once again, he had managed to pass undetected through security with an expired ticket issued in someone else's name. Authorities found at least 10 other boarding passes, none of which belonged to him. Law enforcement sources told The Times they suspect Noibi has used expired plane tickets to sneak on to flights in the past. On his website, Noibi describes himself as a "frequent traveler."

Now, federal authorities and Virgin America are trying to explain how the Nigerian American was able to get through layers of security — and then avoid arrest for five days after officials discovered he was a stowaway.

Aviation safety experts said they see several major breakdowns in security procedures. Transportation Security Administration and airline officials should have noticed the ticket was expired and not in Noibi's name when he boarded at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, they said. He was allowed onboard by showing his expired university ID card, even though college identification cards are not on the TSA's list of valid IDs and federal transportation sources said that it alone should not have been accepted.

The experts were also perplexed at why officials allowed Noibi to leave LAX after the plane landed when he had clearly violated laws.

"Obviously the system did not work the way it was supposed to," said Brian Jenkins, a transportation security expert at the Mineta Transportation Institute in San Jose and the Rand Corp., the Santa Monica-based think tank. "Procedure was not followed."

The incident is another black eye for airport security officials, who are still dealing with the publicity surrounding the TSA's decision last week to force a 95-year-old woman in a wheelchair to take off her adult diaper when she went through a security check in Florida.

TSA officials said Thursday it was reviewing Noibi's case. But Virgin America acknowledged in a statement that its workers "may have missed an alert" in processing Noibi in New York.

"The airline maintains security and other screening systems [are] in place to prevent such an occurrence; however, in this case it appears staff may have missed an alert when the passenger presented a boarding pass from a prior flight," said Virgin America spokeswoman Patricia Condon. "We take security matters very seriously and are reviewing our training to ensure that this anomaly does not occur again."

The saga began June 24, when Noibi got on the plane at JFK.

Noibi was not on the list of passengers for the flight, which would be mandatory "for each paying passenger on every U.S. domestic flight," wrote Special Agent Kevin R. Hogg in an FBI affidavit . Virgin had no record of Noibi paying for his ticket.

Despite this, he was able to move past two checkpoints — at the security screening area and at the gate — with his expired ticket and university ID.

Investigators later determined the boarding pass belonged to a man identified in the affidavit only as "M.D."

The man told authorities he printed his boarding pass at home, folded it up and put it in his back pocket. But when he arrived at JFK after taking the subway, he couldn't find it. He said he did not know Noibi and printed a replacement boarding pass.

When the flight attendant approached Noibi two hours into the twin-jet Airbus A320 flight, Noibi produced a boarding pass for the day before. The attendant alerted Capt. Joseph Groff, who directed her to seek additional identification, according to the affidavit. Noibi initially hesitated but then produced a student ID from the University of Michigan. Noibi attended as an undergraduate student between 2006 and 2008, the college confirmed.

Groff noted that the names did not match, and the crew alerted authorities on the ground.

The crew kept the subject — who was asleep for much of the flight— under surveillance, but at no time felt there was any threat to the security of the flight, Condon said.

The five-hour, 23-minute flight landed in Los Angeles at 12:53 a.m. Saturday. Waiting officers let Noibi go after questioning him, and it's unclear how he spent his time in Southern California. But he returned to LAX on Tuesday, passed through security screening and waited for hours at the airport.

When he tried to board Delta Airlines Flight 46 to Atlanta using the expired ticket, authorities took him into custody Wednesday morning.

He tried to persuade Delta officials to let him on the plane, saying he had missed his flight the previous day. "The Delta agent told Noibi 'no' twice, and Noibi kept trying to hand her the boarding pass," the affidavit said.

Noibi, also known as Seun Noibi, proclaims himself a "storyteller, strategist and designer who is passionate about reaching the world for Jesus," according to his Facebook page. He was arrested in Chicago in 2008 after allegedly refusing to pay a $4.70 fare on a Metra train. Those charges were later dropped.

Noibi faces stowaway charges and is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0701-airport-security-20110630,0,2315584.story?track=rss

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10 Pacoima gang members arrested on weapons, drug charges

The task force targeted members of the Project Boys and Pacoima Flats gangs, which recently merged into one criminal enterprise.

In addition to the 10 people captured in the morning raids, an additional eight have been charged by federal prosecutors. Four of those are still being sought by the task force.

"The FBI remains committed to working with LAPD to identify the most violent criminal enterprises ... who control neighborhoods by operating drug networks, extorting citizens and committing violent acts to maintain that control," said Steve Martinez, the FBI assistant director in charge.

While serving nine search warrants Thursday, investigators seized $10,000 in cash, three handguns, two shotguns, one M1 rifle, two assault rifles, bags of methamphetamine and drug-related items. The gang allegedly modified weapons to be fully automatic, authorities said.

FBI officials said it was second phase of the task force's investigation aimed at the two gangs, believed to be associated with the Mexican Mafia. Previously, 24 gang members were charged in federal indictments.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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From Google News

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Kalamazoo's community policing program in jeopardy

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Community policing is credited with reducing crime and building stronger relationships between people and police, but Kalamazoo is being forced to cut six million dollars from its 2012 and 2013 budget and four million of that is coming from public safety.

That means the community policing program could be cut to save money.

Kalamazoo currently has twelve community policing officers and two supervisors, but to make the needed budget cuts without laying off any officers, the chief of police is going to need to switch those officers to general operations. The move has many worried about what that will mean for their communities.

Neighborhoods throughout Kalamazoo are familiar with their men and women in blue.

“Not by name, but by face I do,” said Mary Martin, who lives in the Edison neighborhood. “They always speak to me, tell me news, what's going on.”

“They're always patrolling,” said Edison neighborhood resident Felicia Sproul. “Sometimes they park and walk the blocks, they're always around.”

However, community policing is about to change in Kalamazoo.

“The onus on building relationships and solving neighborhood problems should not fall solely on the backs of a few dedicated officers,” said Chief Jeff Hadley, KDPS.

Chief Hadley says by moving community policing officers to general operations and assigning beats, he can more easily meet minimum staffing requirements and cut down on overtime.

“I want them to stay, they've been for us, this will be the third year, that we've needed them bad,” said Martin.

Mary Martin is one of many voices clamoring for the community policing officers to be left on their beats.

“Because they know what's going on,” said Martin, “they know the problems we're dealing with every day and they're here to help us.”

Felicia Sproul and her new husband are remodeling their home. They say they'd like to set up shop permanently, but if community police leave the neighborhood, the Sprouls say they may go as well.

“I think it's very helpful to have them here,” said Sproul, “it makes me feel a lot safer.”

The changes to the community policing program are slated to take effect August 4th. Even after the changes, there will still be four community policing officers left, they will be assigned to the Vine, Edison, north and east side neighborhoods.

Chief Hadley says if the changes don't solve the budget problems, more cuts will be needed.

http://www.wwmt.com/common/printer/view.php?db=wwmt&id=1392375

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From the FBI

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Public Corruption Update

A Busy Month Comes to a Close

06/30/11

The FBI works plenty of high-profile public corruption cases—including the investigation of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted Monday after previous indictments.

But many of our cases—worked closely with our investigative and prosecutive partners—don't make national news. Yet they are just as vital to our public corruption mandate—to root out those who violate the public trust. In fact, June was a particularly busy month on that front. From Florida to Arizona, there were a string of legal actions taken against public officials serving in a variety of positions.

Here are some examples:

• Two commissioners in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania were convicted of racketeering and other charges in connection with accepting and demanding payments and other benefits from people doing business with the county. More
  
  
• A Nashville, Tennessee police officer was indicted for accepting cash while delivering drugs and drug money to several locations for local drug dealers—all while wearing his uniform and driving his police car. More
  
  
• A special agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations was arrested in Arizona on charges that she illegally accessed, stole, and transferred sensitive government documents to family members and associates with strong ties to drug trafficking organizations. More
  
  
• A county judge in Cleveland was convicted of accepting bribes, including campaign contributions, in return for fixing cases. So far, this particular investigation has implicated dozens of elected officials, public employees, and contractors within the county. More
  
  
• A former mayor and a magistrate from South Daytona, Florida were both charged with accepting bribes from purported investors in exchange for lowering city code liens on a large investment property. More

Currently, the FBI—with our partners—is working more than 2,000 corruption investigations involving public officials around the country . These investigative efforts certainly pay off—during fiscal year 2010, our cases led to more 1,330 informations/indictments and over 900 convictions (primarily at the federal level but also some at the local level).

Our ability to use sophisticated investigative tools and methods—like undercover operations—is one of the reasons why the FBI is in a unique position to investigate allegations of corruption. These tools and methods often give investigators a front-row seat to witness the actual exchange of bribe money or a handshake that seals an illegal deal.

Bribery is the most common form of corruption the Bureau investigates. But there are plenty more crimes—including extortion, embezzlement, racketeering, kickbacks, money laundering, and all sorts of fraud. A significant portion of our cases involve border corruption.

At the end of the day, the majority of public officials are honest, hard-working individuals determined to improve the lives of their fellow citizens. But a small number of elected, appointed, or contracted officials are only focused on their own good. The actions of corrupt officials—often with the help of private sector accomplices—undermine democratic institutions and threaten national security, which is why the FBI ranks public corruption as our top criminal priority.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/june/corruption_063011/corruption_063011

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