They stole an ocean of booze — one shot at a time.
A gang of 18 JFK Airport workers really could have used a stiff drink yesterday after they were busted for stealing thousands of the tiny liquor bottles served on airplanes to resell at bodegas around the city, officials said.
The airport insiders allegedly grabbed the mini-bottles — at a total value of $750,000 — that were left over after American Airlines flights landed at the airport.
The thefts had been going on for more than a year, before a whistleblower told a JFK security contractor in February that one of their workers was involved in the liquor lifting.
Some 60,000 tiny plastic booze bottles — including single servings of Dewar’s scotch, Absolut vodka and Courvoisier cognac — were recovered yesterday at the Jamaica home of ringleader Domingo Duran, the Queens DA’s Office said.
The ring included 15 members of the Sky Chef company, which provides food and beverage services to American Airlines, and three private airport security guards.
DA Richard Brown said the Sky Chef workers’ job was to take unsold mini-bottles off the arriving planes and store them in a JFK facility.
Instead, they grabbed as many as they could and sneaked them out of the airport, while the accused dirty guards looked the other way, officials said.
Michael McKeon, a spokesman for FJC Security Services, said the company got an anonymous letter earlier this year about how an employee was involved in the racket.
“We brought that information to the Port Authority’s attention. And they launched an investigation,” he said. “They asked us not to fire these people, to let them stay on the job and continue to operate.”
In a probe of the ring that took several months, an undercover informant bought some 55,000 stolen bottles.
After stealing the mini-bottles, ring members allegedly sold them to Queens grocers for $1 for regular hooch and $2 for the good stuff. The bottles normally sell for $7 on the aircraft.
“What is extremely troubling in this post-9/11 world is that all of these individuals had unfettered access to the secure aeronautical area of the airport,” said Port Authority Inspector General Robert Van Etten.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Christina Carrega