FBI Says Millage Peaks, Son of Former L.A. Fire Chief, Paid TSA Agent $5K to Let Him Smuggle Pot Through LAX
Either 23-year-old Millage Peaks is really bad at math, or the former Los Angeles Fire Department chief's royalish offspring really, really wanted some California green for his trip to Boston.
LA Daily News Not a proud day for former fire chief Millage Peaks (right).
According to KNX news radio, the FBI affidavit for Peaks' bribery case alleges that he paid a TSA "about $5k to get several lbs of pot" onto his Sunday flight out of LAX.
Huh? 'Round these parts, we'd never pay more than, say, a grand per pound. So even if he had five pounds and planned to way overcharge the good-shit-starved college kids on the East Coast...
... the risks involved in trafficking weed through two of the country's largest airports seem too ridiculous for even someone as privileged as Peaks to attempt.
(Kind of puts a tarnish on his dad's stellar reputation as a good guy in an industry of jerks -- a money-pincher with a smart head on his shoulders, racial-profiling paranoia notwithstanding. Same can obviously not be said of Millage Jr.)
It's almost equally hard to imagine what was going through the head of federal official Dianna Perez of Inglewood, the TSA agent accused of accepting the bribe.
However, KNX reports that they may have succeeded in pulling off similar plots several times before:
Reporter Claudia Peschiutta Tweets, "Affadavit says Peaks allegedly told feds TSA agent helped him get drugs past security several times before & he paid about $5k total."
According to the Los Angeles Times, the arrests of Peaks and Perez "occurred after a baggage handler smelled marijuana in a bag and alerted supervisors."
Both are in court today; updates to come as details emerge of their audacious exchange. As if the TSA -- or the L.A. Fire Department, for that matter -- needs any more bad press.
[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]
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