Con Air: Convicted Drug Kingpin, Arms Smugglers Keep Licenses to Fly in the U.S.

Oct. 9, 2009 — -- A notorious drug kingpin, a convicted arms trafficker and several other individuals linked to aviation-connected crimes continue to hold FAA pilots licenses, according to an analysis of the FAA data base made available to ABCNews.com.

The cases call into question the ability of the FAA and the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) to detect and purge high risk individuals from the list of approved pilots. After 9/11, the TSA was charged with alerting the FAA of individuals posing a threat to "transportation and national security."

Popular Reads

50,000 under evacuation orders in Southern Calif. over chemical tank explosion threat

• May 24, 8:41 PM

Rubio says 'significant progress' made in Iran talks

• May 24, 12:43 PM

Suspect dead, bystander wounded after gunfire near White House: Secret Service

• May 24, 9:01 PM

"Evidently from the results we found, I don't think they are doing an adequate job," said David Schiffer of Safe Banking Systems (SBS), a New York computer security firm run by Schiffer and his son Mark. They say they uncovered the cases by cross-checking the FAA's public data base with information on suspect individuals.