Airport baggage screener charged with stealing drugs

A federal baggage screener at Spokane International Airport was arrested Tuesday for allegedly taking prescription medication from a passenger’s luggage.

Transportation Security Administration employee Wendy Susan Swanson was caught stealing prescription drugs from two bags while under surveillance, court documents state.

The airport police chief contacted the Drug Enforcement Agency in June to report that a TSA employee, later identified as Swanson, had been accused by other TSA employees of stealing narcotics from luggage, court records said.

Airport police and federal agents agreed to set up a surveillance camera in the baggage screening area in the lower level of the airport.

About 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, agents and police put two bags containing the controlled prescription narcotics Hydrocodone and Oxycontin through the security screening process.

During the surveillance, officials observed Swanson open a bag belonging to a Horizon Airlines passenger, and remove a prescription bottle from the bag and pour some of the contents into her hand, court records said.

One of the bags containing the Oxycontin passed through security, and Swanson was seen opening the prescription bottle and ingesting one of the pills, court records state.

Authorities removed 18½ pills, identified as the drug Temazepam which is used primarily as a sleeping pill, from Swanson’s right front pocket. The owner of the luggage confirmed that some of her prescription drugs were missing.

Inside Swanson’s purse, police also found three prescription bottles containing various prescription pills.

Swanson is scheduled to appear before United State Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno on July 27, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice.