Austin Airport Employee Arrested at Security Checkpoint With Loaded Gun and Cocaine

A concourse at Austin-Bergstrom Airport

An airport worker at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was arrested after she was discovered to have a loaded gun and drugs at a security checkpoint.

According to the arrest affidavit, the incident occurred on November 28 and 12:21 p.m. local time.

A Transportation Security Administration employee saw the gun on an x-ray screening machine inside a purse belonging to 23-year-old Angelina Ortiz, who worked at an airport concession.  Police officers who were summoned by the TSA to the security checkpoint

Ortiz told the TSA worker that the purse was hers and that she had forgotten to remove the gun before coming to the airport.  A search of her purse revealed a pill containing Aprazolam, a controlled substance for which she had no prescription.  The gun was found to have had 13 rounds in the magazine, the arrest warrant stated.

Police took Ortiz to the Travis County Jail, where she was arrested under the places weapons prohibited statute as well as for possession of a controlled substance.  A second search of her purse revealed a plastic baggie with a white powdery substance that turned out to be cocaine., which led to a second possession of a controlled substance charge.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)