A second suspect has been charged in connection to the theft of approximately $250,000 in cash from John F. Kennedy International Airport last Thursday, authorities announced.
Quincy Thorpe, a Delta Ground Service employee, was previously arrested after he was seen taking the bag of cash instead of scanning and loading it onto a Delta plane, according to the complaint against Thorpe.
Thorpe’s friend, Emmanuel Asuquo Okon, 33, met Thorpe at a remote part of JFK, behind a parked aircraft, to get the bag of cash from Thorpe, according to the complaint against Okon.
Okon used his domestic partner’s vehicle to drive to JFK and pick up the bag of cash from Thorpe, according to the complaint. Authorities say license plate readers show the vehicle arriving at the highway entrance to JFK at 9:13 a.m. on the day of the heist and departing three minutes later.
Law enforcement officials searched that vehicle Sunday and found an envelope containing a Delta Air Waybill for the Delta flight last Thursday associated with “Piece 8 of 8,” the missing bag of cash, according to the complaint.
“The case is completely circumstantial and there are no allegations of an actual crime happening,” Okon’s attorney, Douglas Rankin, told CNN. “I expect the charges to be dismissed in the not so distant future.”
Okon was released on $80,000 bond, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
He was arrested Saturday night at the airport after returning from vacation, Rankin said.
Stolen bag was one of eight, authorities say
Eight bags were supposed to be scanned and loaded onto the plane bound for Miami, but only seven were scanned and registered for the flight with Thorpe’s identification, according to the complaint against Thorpe.
After Flight 1225 arrived in Miami, the security company that was transporting the bags, Victim Security Company, realized that one of them was missing, according to the complaint.
Thorpe called out sick to work in the two days following the September 24 theft. The FBI interviewed Thorpe at his home Thursday, where he admitted he was responsible for loading bags and knew the bags he was loading contained valuables, according to the complaint.
