Up until Monday, Zabdiel "Zab" Santiago-Balaguer and Thomas Anthony Munoz were just your average US airline employees — tasked with loading bags on planes and working the passenger check-in counter at the Orlando International Airport in Florida. Now both men, 22, are in federal custody — arrested on charges of being part of a gun and drug cartel working out of the airport to smuggle weapons and other contraband on planes. It gets worse.

On Monday, Munoz took an early morning Delta Airlines flight from Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico carrying 13 guns, an assault rifle and 8 pounds of marijuana in his carry-on duffel bag. Munoz by-passed federal security check points by using his airport security ID card. Munoz stashed the duffel bag in a secure area near the departure gate and retrieved it shortly before boarding the flight.

Santiago-Balaguer had intended to join Munoz on the flight but was pulled from the plane before take-off because local police had received an anonymous tip from Crimeline. The Orlando Sentinel reports that court records released today indicate that Santiago-Balaguer "has been under scrutiny for some time and heads a smuggling group at the airport." 

Adding insult to airport insecurity, TSA spokesman Christopher White took to the podium today to say that there was no danger from the guns on the plane because air marshals were on board. White would not comment on the security breach. He would also not comment on whether or not the air marshals knew that the guns were on board, which they couldn't possibly have known. Federal officials only figured out Munoz was working with Santiago-Balaguer after the flight was already in the air. Munoz was arrested by federal agents when the flight landed in San Juan. 

Santiago-Balaguer and Munoz worked for Comair, a subsidiary of Delta Airlines based out of Erlanger, Kentucky. According to Comair spokesperson, Kate Marx, both men had passed federal background checks before they were hired.

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