Catching many travelers off guard is a new practice being stealthily carried out by drug agents dressed as plainclothes passengers at the Atlanta airport who are randomly searching people they suspect are transporting drug money.
Atlanta News First Investigates reporters tailed Drug and Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force officers at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as they worked to track down potential drug mules making their way through various terminals. Atlanta Black Star also covered the claim of comedians Eric André and Clayton English, who alleged they were racially profiled by police and questioned about drugs at the airport on separate occasions in 2021 and 2020.
Unsuspecting travelers never realized these were federal drug agents until they were approached by one at their gates.
“He just approached me, and he asked me for my ID,” film director Tabari Sturdivant told Atlanta News First. “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.”
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Sturdivant, an Atlanta-based film director, was heading to L.A. for a film project when a group of task force officers walked up to him and requested to search his carry-on luggage in front of other passengers at his gate.
The officers didn’t find anything illegal, but during the search, they asked if he was high or if he was carrying drugs and cash.
It’s not just the DEA that’s walking around Hartsfield-Jackson in plain clothes. Clayton County narcotics officers are also in on the action because some are reportedly cross-sworn as DEA task force officers.
Hollywood actors and comedians Jean Elie, André, and English were stopped by the agents on a jet bridge of separate ATL to LAX flights and searched their belongings in front of other passengers in 2021 and 2020.
Flights from Atlanta to Los Angeles are routinely monitored…
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