Former TSA officer faces sentencing for bribery

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- A former Transportation Security Administration officer is facing sentencing this week for accepting cash in exchange for allowing illegal prescription painkillers to pass through airport security without detection.

Christopher Allen of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in New Haven. He pleaded guilty in April to extortion and receipt of a bribe.

Authorities say Allen accepted cash from a trafficker to ensure the trafficker would not be stopped by TSA officers as he carried oxycodone pills through airport security.

Allen's attorney says his conduct was a marked deviation from an otherwise law-abiding life. He says that the conduct occurred after a person cooperating with the government induced him to participate in criminal conduct and that the purported drugs were actually baby aspirin or other placebos.