CHARLOTTE, N.C. Aug 8 2018 – A former TSA agent at Charlotte Douglas International Airport convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison.

In 2017, Jamie Blunder, 50, was convicted of coordinating drug deals while at the airport.

Officials said while they don’t think Blunder sold any drugs at Charlotte’s airport, he did make multiple calls from there to coordinate a massive drug trafficking network.

During Blunder’s sentencing hearing, the judge said he traded on his “position of trust” and used his TSA uniform and badge while off duty trafficking cocaine.

Investigators said the scheme started to unravel in 2015 when a state trooper happened to pull Blunder over for speeding.

They said he showed his TSA badge to try and get out of the ticket, and that’s when the FBI began investigating him.

Undercover agents tracked his every move for six months in 2016.

Defense attorney Yolanda Trotman believes the TSA badge was only used to identify who he was and not to get out of traffic violations while moving drugs across the state.

Court records show that Blunder often drove to a house in Greensboro where he stashed his drugs and based his drug operation involving at least eight other people who were also arrested.

The FBI said he would sell the drugs, often large amounts of cocaine, in the middle of the day at parking lots across the city.

Blunder was sentenced to 25 years behind bars. He could have been sentenced to life.

His legal team argued decades behind bars amounted to a life sentence for Butler.

Assistant U.S. attorneys Lambert Guinn and Dana Washington presented evidence that Blunder was part of a drug conspiracy over a span of 14 years dating back to 2002.

The FBI led the investigation.

Several family members were in court hoping for a reduced sentence including his mother and father.

Blunder was fired as a TSA officer when he was arrested and is expected to appeal Tuesday’s sentence and conviction.

WSOCTV

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