Lambert workers admit to fake Social Security numbers

ST. LOUIS -- Three Lambert Airport workers have pleaded guilty to using false Social Security numbers to get their jobs and the security access that went with them, U.S. Attorney Ray Gruender said Thursday.

The April 22 arrests of Armando Florentino, Guillermo Garcia and Jairo Rios were part of "Operation Tarmac," a post-Sept. 11 national crackdown on airport security.

Gruender has said there was no reason to believe the three were involved in terrorist activity.

As part of the crackdown, hundreds of employees with access to high-security areas of airports were arrested on charges such as using phony Social Security numbers, lying about past criminal convictions or being in the United States illegally.

Rios, 42, of Florissant, pleaded guilty June 27 and faces sentencing Sept. 12. Florentino, 33, of St. Louis, pleaded guilty Wednesday and is to be sentenced Oct. 8. Sentencing is set for Oct. 10 for Garcia, the 29-year-old St. Ann man who pleaded guilty Thursday.

Each could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Florentino and Rios used Social Security numbers that had been assigned to others, and Garcia used an invalid number.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, police at Lambert Airport asked all employees with badge security access to fill out a "badge revalidation form." Each form was checked along with information given when employment began, and the Social Security Administration verified numbers.

Of 10,517 forms checked from Lambert, only Florentino, Garcia and Rios were arrested, Gruender said.

Florentino was hired in March 1998 as a Trans States Airlines flight attendant. Garcia and Rios were hired last August as package handlers -- Garcia for Continental Airlines, Rios for Federal Express.

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