By Hank Tester
A Transportation Security Administration employee was arrested on 25 counts of possessing child pornography, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.
TSA screener Andrew Smeal, 39, was being held at the Broward County Main Jail on $50,000 bond Thursday night, according to online BSO records.
Smeal appeared in bond court before Broward Circuit Judge John Hurley earlier in the day. It was not known whether he has an attorney.
“Once we did the interviews of the residents we found that the computers that were actually trading child pornography over the Internet,” BSO Det. Giuseppe Weller said.
At Smeal’s house Thursday, his roommate was moving out. The roommate did not comment. The disheveled living room was full of electronics.
“As soon as you walked in the front door, the living room was loaded with electronics, storage devices, hard drives,” Weller said.
The TSA said in a statement, “TSA holds its security officers to the highest professional and ethical standards, both on and off the job. In cases where there are allegations of off-duty misconduct, TSA fully cooperates with law enforcement and takes appropriate action, as warranted.”