A former employee at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) was sentenced to time in a federal prison after admitting to letting a drug runner use his ID badge to skip the TSA security checkpoint at the airport.
34-year-old Tiriq Henson of Philadelphia was sentenced to nine days of incarceration, which is to be followed by two years of supervised release, for his role in the criminal conspiracy.
Court documents revealed that since 2014, Henson had worked for a third-party passenger assistance agency at PHL until his arrest in March 2024, when he admitted to letting an ‘acquaintance’ use his airport ID badge in exchange for just $50 cash.
That acquaintance was 39-year-old David Easley from Georgia, a convicted felon who had been well known to law enforcement since he was a juvenile, and who has convictions for possession of crack cocaine, assaulting a police officer, and making terroristic threats.
Easley had booked a flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta, but he didn’t want to go through the normal TSA security checks because he was trying to smuggle six bottles of a prescription medicine called promethazine onto the flight.
Drug users refer to promethazine, a syrupy medication that contains codeine, as ‘Lean’ or ‘Purple Drank.’ Six bottles of promethazine could be worth several thousand dollars on the black market.
Easley had been plotting with Henson since January 2024 to use the employee ID badge to gain access to a secret corridor that leads from the ‘landside’ check-in hall to the ‘airside’ departures concourse, bypassing standard passenger security screening.
When Easley got to the final door leading into the departures concourse, however, he found a group of TSA agents carrying out random checks. Easley attempted to run from the agents but was quickly tracked down and detained.
Law enforcement found Henson’s ID badge still in Easley’s possession, and he admitted to paying $50 to use the badge.
Both Easley and Henson faced a possible maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, but last month, Easley escaped a jail term and was instead sentenced to 26 months of supervised release, which includes two months of home detention.
Prosecutors had called for Easley to be incarcerated, warning that a non-custodial sentence would “not act to deter this defendant.” In a sentencing memorandum submitted to the court, prosecutors said: “Easley’s post-plea conduct suggests he is unconcerned and unrepentant about his federal crime.”
Henson’s attorneys had asked the court to hand down a probationary sentence, arguing that he was otherwise a law-abiding father who was “severely shamed” by what he had done.
Despite those pleas, US District Judge Gail A. Weilheimer sentenced Henson to nine days of imprisonment, which will be followed by two years of supervised release.
