Former Airline Baggage Handler Sentenced To Thirty Months In Prison For Violating Airport Security Requirements, Drug Smuggling, And Money Laundering

OAKLAND – Former Southwest Airlines baggage handler Keith Ramon Mayfield was sentenced today to thirty months in prison for entering an airport area in violation of security requirements, conspiring to distribute marijuana, and conspiring to launder money, announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Special Agent in Charge Kareem Carter, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett.  The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Phyllis J. Hamilton, Chief U.S. District Judge.  

Mayfield, 38, of Oakland, pleaded guilty to the charges on February 21, 2018.  According to his plea agreement, Mayfield admitted that on at least 40 occasions between May of 2013 and March of 2015, he used his access as a baggage handler for Southwest Airlines at the Oakland International Airport to smuggle marijuana into the airport and distribute the marijuana to outbound passengers.  Mayfield admitted he smuggled luggage containing a total of at least 250 kilograms of marijuana around the TSA checkpoint to outbound passengers who had already cleared the security checkpoint.

Mayfield also admitted that he shipped at least 100 kilograms of marijuana in cargo shipments on Southwest Airlines to airports throughout the United States.  As part of the scheme, Mayfield’s co-conspirators traveled to airports, picked up the shipments of marijuana, and further distributed and sold the drugs.  

Moreover, Mayfield admitted he conspired with others to launder the proceeds of the marijuana sales.  Specifically, during 2012 and 2013, people deposited at least $50,000 of drug trafficking proceeds into bank accounts at branches located in Texas. Mayfield withdrew the funds in Northern California. Mayfield admitted that the purpose of the transactions was to funnel the narcotics trafficking proceeds from the points of sale to the point of origin in Northern California and to disguise and conceal the source and ownership of the narcotics trafficking proceeds.  

On January 16, 2018, Mayfield was charged in a superseding information with one count of conspiracy to distribute, and possess with intent to distribute, marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846; one count of entering an airport area in violation of security requirements, in violation of 49 U.S.C. §§ 46314(a) and 46314(b)(2); and one count of conspiracy to launder money, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h).  Pursuant to this plea agreement, Mayfield pleaded guilty to all the charges in the superseding information.

In addition to the prison term, Chief Judge Hamilton sentenced the defendant to a four-year period of supervised release.  During this period of supervised release, Mayfield will be barred from seeking or obtaining employment with any commercial air carrier or airport.  The Court also ordered Mayfield to pay a forfeiture money judgment of $50,000.  Mayfield will begin serving the sentence on August 12, 2019.

Mayfield’s sentence brings to 11 the number of defendants sentenced as part of the scheme to violate airport security and distribute marijuana.  The other ten defendants sentenced include the following:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Garth Hire is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Kathleen Turner.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI, the IRS-CI, and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.  This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, a focused multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force investigating and prosecuting the most significant drug trafficking organizations throughout the United States by leveraging the combined expertise of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.