A flight attendant who left behind nearly 70lbs of cocaine as she fled a random TSA search at LAX has taken into custody in New York. Marsha Gay Reynolds surrendered to feds at JFK Airport Wednesday, which means she somehow made it onto a cross-country flight from Los Angeles while on the lam.
Reynolds was in a JetBlue crew line waiting to check in for a flight from LAX to New York last Friday when she was pulled out of line and subjected to a random search. Before that search was completed, she reportedly kicked off her Gucci heels and fled the airport on foot. Authorities later found 69 lbs of cocaine stashed in her luggage, which ABC reports had a street value of roughly $3 million.
Reynolds was charged with cocaine possession with intent to distribute. U.S. Attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek said she is expected to appear in a Brooklyn federal court today.
According to the TSA, Reynolds became visibly nervous when she was pulled aside for a random check last Friday. Authorities told NBC that she quickly made a cellphone call in a "foreign language" before kicking off her shoes, running the wrong way down an escalator, and out of the terminal.
Police at LAX searched her bags and quickly found the 11 packages of cocaine wrapped in green plastic. According to NBC's report, the TSA's explanation for how she was able to get on a plane is...shoddy. Authorities had "scanned her identification before she ran from Terminal 4 in LAX but were still in the process of identifying her into the weekend," sources told the network.
