Eleven people, including eight federally employed baggage screeners, were charged with stealing items from the bags of passengers -- including Paris Hilton and singer Keyshia Cole -- at Los Angeles International Airport, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo announced Friday.
The eight baggage screeners facing misdemeanor charges were all employees of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration. All have since been fired. Two others were employees of an LAX subcontractor, and the 11th person was a transient who went into the airport and tried to steal passengers' luggage, officials said.
"Today we are sending a message to those who might consider committing a crime at LAX, be they an employee, a passenger or a visitor -- you better think again," Delgadillo said at a news conference at the airport.
Among those charged was George Penaranda, 27, a now-former TSA baggage screener at the British Airways terminal. He is accused of taking a $100,000 limited-edition watch from Hilton's bag. According to the City Attorney's Office, another screener witnessed the theft and reported it to a supervisor.
Two other former TSA employees -- Qualonda Matthews, 32, and Millicent Pounds, 49 -- are accused of stealing a $7,000 watch that Cole had left behind at a security checkpoint. Prosecutors claim Matthews and Pounds fraudulently signed out the watch from the airport's lost property section.
The 11 defendants face charges including petty theft, grand theft and conspiracy. The charges carry penalties ranging from six months to one year in jail and fines up to $1,000. Matthews and Pounds could be fined up to $10,000 for the conspiracy charge.
The other now-former TSA workers charged were Monica Zuniga, 28, Joanna Chang, 30, Brandon Wells, 21, Cornell Braggs, 23, and Heather Hall, 25.
Zuniga allegedly targeted passengers with Asian surnames on outbound international flights, while Chang is accused of stealing a bag containing four cartons of duty-free cigarettes.
"We hold our Transportation Security officers to the highest ethical standards," said Larry Fetters, TSA's federal security director at LAX. "As passengers put their belongings and trust into our hands, we owe it to them to hold these people accountable and are pleased that the city attorney has accepted these cases from us for prosecution.
"Each of these individuals has been terminated from employment with the TSA in compliance with our zero-tolerance policy for dishonesty," Fetters said.
Also charged were Gabriel Becerra, 27, and Lazaro Borjas, 30, who allegedly stole a passenger's digital camera while working as baggage handlers inside the belly of an aircraft. The pair worked for an LAX subcontractor.
The 11th suspect is Gary Lee Jones, 55, a transient who allegedly tried to steal passengers' bags from Terminals 3 and 6.
Delgadillo also announced the creation of an LAX "Security Enhancement Initiative," a multi-agency effort to boost security at the airport. The initiative includes the LAPD, Los Angeles World Airports, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the Secret Service.
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