CHICAGO — Federal prosecutors have accused 24 people of using Amtrak’s Southwest Chief to move cocaine and heroin from California to Chicago, the Associated Press reports.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago says the charges were the result of a multi-year investigation called “Operation Derail.” According to court documents, the suspects would often hide the drugs in luggage and items like car parts. At least one of the people indicted was an Amtrak employee who took a package of cocaine at Chicago Union Station.
An Amtrak representative tells Trains News Wire that the passenger railroad participated in the investigation. The representative also says the Amtrak employee mentioned in the federal indictment was “removed from service and awaits administrative actions.’
I go along with Britt Ried, wonderful job, awesome pay , great retirement, and u THROW IT ALL AWAY.
Unlike air travel, rail travel does not require baggage screening. Baggage checking en route without the consent of the owner is a potential 4th Amendment violation. I’m not in favor of people running drugs on Amtrak, or anywhere else, but law enforcement can’t just check everyone’s baggage because they want to. There has to be some probably cause.
I’ve seen them put dogs on in Albuquerque. Those dogs are smart. People coming down and boarding from Denver was another reason for this being done in Albuquerque.
Not the first time I’ve heard about something like this happening on this train. Perhaps they could do more checks of baggage at bigger cities where they’re stopped for a little while anyways, like Albuquerque or Kansas City. I’ve ridden the entire train out of both LA and Chicago, and the only time they brought police and sniffing dogs through was before our departure in Los Angeles. Something like this doesn’t really take much time and could help prevent more smuggling.
Not fired mind you …..just reassigned for using the train to move cocaine. That is government employment at its finest.
Its so easy to sniff every package, luggage, carried on getting on a train on most places. Criminals found it easy bcuz they saw security was laxed, even after 9/11, etc. Airports get all the attention. They will move back to automobile smuggling, no biggy! To the Amtrak employees who got busted: “you stupid asses!!” great career, great pay, great retirement, and threw it all away.
Good to hear, but a small consolation to the innocent passengers who have been harassed by law enforcement on this train.