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Seattle TSO's Sharp Eye Leads to Major Drug Bust

News & Happenings

May 29, 2007

Ecstasy pills in plastic bag

Even though Seattle TSO Deena Peverley was working the X-ray machine during a recent Sunday shift, her sharp eye observed a passenger coming through the checkpoint whose bulky clothes did not fit the contour of her body.

Peverley reacted immediately to prevent Alexia Petersen Dix from leaving the area. With no other female security officers readily available to do a search, Peverely asked another officer to take over the X-ray so that she could perform secondary screening on the passenger.

The passenger claimed that a "brace" accounted for the suspicious area, but as the search progressed the situation still did not "seem right," Peverley said.

Port of Seattle police were called and found approximately 15,000 Ecstasy tablets with a street value of more than $375,000. Dix was charged with transportation of drugs with the intent to distribute.

"TSO Peverley did the right thing by stopping a passenger for screening when she observed something wasn't right. Her intuition took over and she made the right choice," said Supervisory TSO Iris K. McBride.