CEDAR RAPIDS – A man who was caught taking marijuana and over $37,000 in cash through the Eastern Iowa Airport security screening was sentenced today to two months in federal prison and fined $2,000.
Andre Burns, age 38, from Atlanta, Georgia, received the prison term after a February 1, 2022 guilty plea to interfering with airport security.
Information disclosed at sentencing showed that Burns was flying out of the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on June 16, 2019. While he was going through the airport security checkpoint, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents discovered approximately 35 grams of marijuana and an envelope containing $37,723 in cash in Burns’ luggage. Burns grabbed some of the cash from the agents and then ran from the security checkpoint. As he was running, Burns struck a TSA agent in the stomach, causing a contusion and requiring the agent to go to the hospital. Burns then ran from the airport and into a cornfield across the street. Officers from the Cedar Rapids Police Department located and arrested him in the cornfield.
Burns was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Burns was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment and fined $2,000. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Burns was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Morfitt and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cedar Rapids Police Department, and the Transportation Security Administration.
