Luggage Looters Jailed in Britain

LONDON —  Scotland Yard said Thursday that undercover police have arrested 23 baggage handlers for looting passengers’ suitcases at Heathrow Airport, dubbed “Thiefrow” because of suspected multimillion-dollar luggage pilfering at the world’s busiest airport.

The five-month operation was the second in which authorities have broken up employee theft rings at the airport.

Detectives, who filmed the workers stealing, arrested 23 British Airways baggage handlers Wednesday in synchronized raids at their homes and the airport, police sources said.

“At times the baggage area resembled a fitting room at a clothes store,” said one officer who was part of the 10-member police team that worked undercover in the airport’s British Airways baggage depots.

“Bags were being opened and some people were trying the clothes on for size. If they didn’t fit, they would put them back into the cases.”

Scotland Yard said the 23 were charged with conspiracy to steal from passengers’ luggage, but a Scotland Yard spokesman would not reveal the estimated value of the stolen items in advance of the suspects’ trials.

After a similar undercover operation put 15 baggage thieves in jail last year, Judge Michael Argyle dubbed the airport “Thiefrow” for the pilfering, estimated by police sources to run into the millions of dollars each year.