Newark, NJ – A Nigerian man used the identity of a murder victim to hide his status as an illegal immigrant while working undetected for decades as a security guard and then a security supervisor at one of the United States’ busiest airports, authorities said Monday in announcing his arrest.
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The arrest of Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole came on the day a federal report found the Transportation Security Administration’s handling of security breaches at the airport, Newark Liberty International, deficient. Newark has had a number of high-profile security beaches, the most notorious being the case of a Chinese graduate student who slipped past an exit checkpoint to say goodbye to his girlfriend in 2010, shutting down a terminal and causing huge delays affecting domestic and international traffic.
Oyewole, 54, worked at the airport, starting in 1992, under the name of Jerry Thomas, who was killed that year in New York City. He was arrested, after an anonymous tip, at his home in Elizabeth on Monday and faced charges including identity theft, authorities said. It wasn’t immediately known how Thomas’ personal information was acquired.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the area’s main airports and other transit hubs, said Oyewole entered the United States illegally in 1989 and had worked under several contractors at the airport, most recently FJC Security Services, and supervised about 30 guards. The agency said its investigation found no indication that he used the fake identity for any reason other than to live in the United States.
Port Authority leaders had spoken with FJC officials “and will meet with them in the coming days to take every legally permissible step to recheck their security personnel on a regular basis and to protect our customers, employees and facilities,” agency spokesman Steve Coleman said.
A message left Monday on Oyewole’s home phone was not immediately returned, and the Port Authority said it wasn’t sure if he had retained an attorney.
FJC Security, which received an airport contract in 2003, said it conducted a background check on the guard as had New Jersey state police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“In all cases, he passed the background checks,” FJC spokesman Michael McKeon said. “During his time with FJC, he had nothing in his record or his performance to indicate a cause for concern or a reason to question the state police and federal government’s background checks.”
In a statement, the TSA said it was reviewing the Port Authority’s procedures for validating employee and contractor documents.
“This investigation indicates that the individual’s identification documents were presented to the Port Authority for verification about a decade before TSA existed,” the statement said.
State police spokesman Lt. Stephen Jones said New Jersey requires security guards to undergo training under the Security Officer Registration Act and be fingerprinted. The fingerprints are run through the state police criminal history database before a guard is certified.
A candidate is disqualified if he or she has a conviction for a fourth-degree offense or higher or a drug offense of any level, Jones said. Oyewole, as Thomas, was certified under SORA, he said.
A spokesman for Customs and Border Protection didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment Monday.
An airport employee who was familiar with Oyewole as Thomas said the private security guards he supervised are responsible for manning TSA security checkpoints after passenger gates close for the evening and before they reopen in the morning. The guards also inspect delivery vehicles for possible unauthorized cargo, he said, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter.
A search of public records found evidence of a Bimbo Oyewole and a Jerry Thomas living at the address where Oyewole was arrested.
A report released Monday by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found that only 42 percent of reported security breaches from January 2010 to May 2011 led to corrective action, though it also found TSA had worked to improve its response.
How did this guy pass a backround check? Did he use the stolen identity before or after the man was murdered? Does this security supervisor have any ties to any international criminal or terrorist organizations?
Obviously if there was better communicatin between state/city/federal divisions of law enforcement then it would be easier to stop some thing as dangerous as this!
On top of all this “The federal government’s expansion of a program that requires local police to share fingerprints with immigration officials is drawing protests in New York.”!!!!
RACHMANA LITZLAN!!
There is one bank in this city that when you go in to either withdraw or deposit money, they require your thumbprint on the slip as well as your signature. I do not see why all banks cannot do it.
With a name like that, I would have also stolen someone’s identity.
All kidding aside, this is a serious security breach.
Somehow I AM not surprised about this TSA worker.
How many OTHERS are there like him in TSA now?
Thats where he belongs. At the TSA. They are full of bimbos. So is his name, Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole.
All kidding aside, this is no joke. Who knows how many more like him work at the TSA. These are the people who are in charge of security?
the federal government also ran/checked his fingerprints regularly
maybe the lunatics are running the asylum
A lot of businesses do not wish to spend the money on having their employees fingerprinted, for a thorough background check. If that so-called security guard was fingerprinted, his correct identity would have been revealed twenty years ago.
Cool off guys. It is clear from reading the story that he was an illegal who simply wanted to cloud his status, which he did very well for many years,. He presented no security risk.
Isn’t anyone going to blane this on Obama’s supposedly being on the side of terrorism?