Former American Airlines employee sentenced to 6 years in federal prison for her role in a cocaine transporting conspiracy on DFW airport flights

DALLAS — A former American Airlines employee was sentenced to six years in federal prison following her guilty plea to transporting a substance that was represented to be cocaine on flights from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW).

This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.  This investigation was led by the FBI, Dallas Police Department, and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation.  The following agencies assisted with this investigation:  Texas Department of Public Safety; DFW Department of Public Safety; U.S. Department of State; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Transportation Security Administration; U.S. Secret Service; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO); and the Texas police departments of Fort Worth, McKinney, Mesquite and Plano.

Janelle Isaacs, 42, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to 72 months in federal prison following her guilty plea in June 2016 to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute at least five kilograms or more of cocaine. Isaacs has been in custody since mid-July 2015 following a law enforcement operation led by the FBI, the Dallas Police Department and Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation. During that operation, numerous defendants were arrested on drug distribution conspiracy and related charges outlined in a federal superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Dallas the previous month.

That superseding indictment charged Janelle Isaacs, Funaki Falahola, 35, Moniteveti Katoa, 53, Molitoni Katoa, 34, with the cocaine distribution conspiracy offense. All four defendants pleaded guilty to the offense. In September 2016, Moniteveti Katoa was sentenced to 188 months, and Molitoni Katoa was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison. In November 2016, Funaki Falahola was sentenced to 240 months in federal prison.

According to documents filed in this case, the four used their positions of employment at DFW, or contacted a person or persons who had a position or positions of employment at DFW, to bypass security in order to transport kilogram quantities of a substance that was represented to be cocaine, in what they did not know was an undercover law enforcement operation.  As part of this conspiracy, that ran from about April 18, 2013, through July 14, 2015, the substance that was represented to be cocaine was transported on commercial airlines flying from DFW to destinations in Las Vegas, Nevada; Newark, New Jersey; Phoenix, Arizona; Chicago, Illinois; Wichita Kansas; and San Francisco, California.

Isaacs admits she became suspicious that Moniteveti Katoa, her husband, was transporting some sort of controlled substance via commercial airlines around 2013 when he asked her if she could provide him information on where law enforcement officers were seated on airplanes. Despite Isaacs’ suspicion, she admits to helping Moniteveti Katoa with his flight arrangements and air travel.

Moniteveti Katoa asked Isaacs to perform a “dry run” with a legal substance called “kava” so that she could build up her courage to cross a bag that contained what she believed to be cocaine. Isaacs performed at least one dry run in order to prepare her to bypass security.

On Dec. 8, 2014, Moniteveti Katoa went to DFW Airport and met with Isaacs. Isaacs took a backpack that was provided by Moniteveti Katoa towards the TSA checkpoint, walked towards the employee portal, bypassed security, and then later provided that same backpack to Moniteveti Katoa so that he could fly, what she and Moniteveti Katoa believed was three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of something illegal to a destination in Kansas, and deliver it for payment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Leal, Northern District of Texas, is in charge of the prosecution.