Baggage Handler Helped Smuggle Guns on Planes: Officials

A baggage handler with Delta Airlines is one of four people arrested in an alleged gun-smuggling ring, ABC News reports. Investigators tracked down Delta employee Eugene Harvey through Mark Quentin Henry, who was arrested after landing in New York earlier this month while allegedly carrying 18 handguns, including seven that were loaded, plus ammunition, in his carry-on bag. He was carrying a Delta Airlines boarding pass and had traveled from Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport using the "Buddy Pass" privileges of his mom, a retired Delta employee, officials say.

Henry had also allegedly done the same thing on at least four other flights between May 1 and December 10, allegedly passing 129 handguns and two assault rifles to other operatives in the plot; one of them sold the weapons to an undercover cop, investigators say. Harvey, meanwhile, was working in Atlanta's Concourse B, where he was able to reach areas the TSA doesn't monitor, authorities note. He allegedly provided the guns to Henry—possibly in a men's bathroom—after Henry cleared security, CNN reports. Delta says it's cooperating with investigators, and Harvey has been suspended and will likely be fired. (More gun smuggling stories.)