SPOKANE – A Spokane International Airport security screener, reportedly caught on camera taking prescription drugs from passengers’ luggage, has been arrested, federal authorities said.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Transportation Security Administration officials said they set up a sting after travelers reported some of their medications, particularly pain pills, had vanished.
A surveillance camera showed Wendy Susan Swanson, a supervisor who checked luggage, taking pills out of bottles and putting them in her pockets, court documents said.
Swanson was arrested Tuesday, made an appearance before a federal magistrate judge and was later released.
She is charged with one count of theft of property by a federal employee, an assistant U.S. attorney said.
A surveillance camera in the baggage screening area showed Swanson opening a bag belonging to a Horizon Airlines passenger and removing some pills from a bottle.
Authorities sent a bag containing the painkiller Oxycontin through security, and Swanson was seen on camera opening the prescription bottle and ingesting one of the pills, the documents said.
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