20 Boston Airport Workers Charged

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By LESLIE MILLER

BOSTON (AP) - Twenty people working at Logan International Airport were
charged with lying to get their jobs or security badges.

Samantha Martin, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan's spokeswoman, said 15
people were taken into custody in a sweep Wednesday morning. Five more
workers were expected to be in custody by the afternoon.

Sullivan scheduled a news conference for Wednesday afternoon to announce
details of the charges, which are part of an ongoing investigation to
improve airport safety.

The employees work for private companies at Logan, not the airport itself.


Each of the workers was being brought into U.S. District Court for an
initial appearance, but as of early afternoon the court had released the
complaint against only one worker, Edgar B. Argueta. He was ordered held
pending a detention hearing.

Argueta, 28, originally from El Salvador, was accused of using a fake alien
registration card and a fraudulent Social Security number on his Jan. 12,
2001, application as a cleaner employed by Precision Cleaning Co. The
company did not immediately return a call for comment.

In December, 271 workers at Salt Lake City International Airport were fired
after a federal investigation dubbed "Operation Safe Travel" revealed they'd
lied to get their jobs and badges. A similar sweep also was done at the Las
Vegas airport. Arrests of smaller groups or of inidividuals have happened at
other airports.

The ongoing review was sparked by a Social Security and Immigration and
Naturalization Service audit that found a high number of airport laborers
were using invalid numbers.

Security at Logan has been particularly in the spotlight because the two
hijacked planes that destroyed the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 took off
from there.

"This federal involvement strengthens the ability of airports around the
country to weed out individuals that have misled the federal government,"
said Jose Juves, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs
Logan.

State police have been conducting background checks of employees of
businesses that operate at Logan since 1987, Juves said.

"We did the maximum check permissible under the law with information made
available to Massport," he said.

Hundreds of people have been denied jobs because of the checks, which
include a Massachusetts criminal history check and check of outstanding
warrants, he said.

Martin said all 20 workers were expected to have initial appearances in U.S.
District Court on Wednesday afternoon.

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