By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

AN AIRPORT police officer was caught stealing just a few weeks after the Guam International Airport Authority busted a theft ring victimizing airport passengers.
Police Officer 2 Vince Castro is a nephew and godson of GIAA general manager Jess Torres.
Castro was caught on a surveillance camera stealing money from a purse after it was turned in at the airport’s lost and found. The airport administration is still considering whether Castro will be transferred or suspended.
Airport sources who requested anonymity said that Castro, who was previously cited for demanding $100 from someone he pulled over on the road, is allegedly being “protected” by his uncle.
To prove the preferential treatment, the same source provided a copy of an internal memo circulated by Airport Police Chief Mark Charfauros directing police personnel at the airport to forward all police documents to the executive manager’s office for Torres’ review.
Charfauros’s May 2, 2007 memorandum was based on Torres’s directive that any and all police reports involving an employee of the airport will be routed to his office for review prior to being routed to the Office of the Attorney General.
Airport sources branded the action “obstruction of justice.”
The same sources revealed that the Torres administration is also under fire after they were asked by the Transport Security Administration to pay a fine of $30,000 for allowing an airport employee to piggyback a Continental Airlines employee through a secure door.
TSA rules do not allow the swiping of card to provide access to individuals other than the card owner. The fine was reduced to $9,000 however.
Torres, who maintained that he does not tolerate theft or any kind of criminality in his administration, did not return Variety’s call for comment.