Ga. airline worker arrested in gun-smuggling plot

ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta airline baggage handler suspected of helping smuggle firearms onto passenger jets to New York City has been arrested by federal agents, authorities said Monday.

A FBI affidavit said there was enough evidence to charge Delta ramp agent Eugene Harvey, 31, with trafficking firearms, violating airport security and aiding others in the scheme.

Former Delta employee Mark Quentin Henry, who was fired in 2010, was arrested in New York on Dec. 10 in a weapons trafficking investigation after an undercover agent bought a gun from one of his accomplices, according to the affidavit filed on Dec. 19. The investigation targeted firearms that were being sold in New York that had been purchased in the Atlanta area.

Authorities looked at Henry's cellphone, airport surveillance footage and security records and determined that he conspired with Harvey to get the guns past security. Cellphone records showed the two had communicated via text message 12 times shortly before Harvey's flight departed Atlanta for New York City on Dec. 10.

When Henry was arrested, authorities confiscated a backpack that contained a smaller bag with 18 handguns inside. Henry told investigators he traveled from Atlanta to New York with the guns and ammunition in his carry-on bag, which would not have made it past TSA screening.