Air marshals are federal government workers that Chris Q. Public really knows very little about. Of course, that’s intentional on the part of the government – they’re there to assess, address and mitigate varying potential risks and threats to transportation and travelers, which may be more difficult if they or their duties were outed. But with that, you could be sitting right next to an air marshal and never even know it.
You don’t even really hear much about air marshals, except for when things involving them go badly.
- Delta flight diverted after passenger assaulted air marshal
- The mystery of the allegedly drunk deputy US marshal on Delta (again it was on Delta!)
And apparently, something else just went south with an air marshal…and this one has already admitted his guilt.
Problem #1
From October 2021 through January 2023, federal air marshal Jonathan J. Ledesma purchased cards that identified their bearers as being a “family member” of “Jonathan J. Ledesma,” a “Federal Officer.” Each of the cards was embossed with what looked like the insignia of the Department of Homeland Security, as well as a QR code that was linked to Ledesma’s cellular phone.
Ledesma wasn’t authorized to produce cards with DHS’s insignia on them, so that was problem #1.
Problem #2
Problem #2? I’ll let the TSA explain:
In July 2022, Ledesma sold a card to a person who was arrested on Jan. 30, 2023, while in possession of the card. A federal officer scanned the QR code and spoke with Ledesma, who indicated that he had provided the card to person because he was a friend and business associate of the person’s father. This statement was false because, as Ledesma well knew, he had never met or done business with person’s father. On Jan. 18, 2023, Ledesma sold a second card to another individual.
That’s when he was arrested.
By the way, know how much he was selling those cards for? Somewhere between $1,100 and $1,700!!!
So, besides making cards with the logo of a federal entity that he had no permission to use, he also made false statements to an officer about who he was selling them to. That latter one? Yeah, that’s problem #2.
Making a false statement to an officer is punishable by a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000. The unauthorized sale of official insignia is punishable by a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a maximum fine of $5,000.
Ledesma pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Georgette Castner in Trenton (NJ) federal court on July 17, 2024, to a two-count information that charged him with making false statements and selling official insignia without authorization.
Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 20, 2024.
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