Hawaii: Two Tourists Arrested After Trying To Bribe Airport Screener To Skip Quarantine

Two people visiting Hawaii from Louisiana were arrested after they allegedly tried to bribe a Honolulu airport screener to avoid following the state’s COVID-19 protocols.

They were charged with bribery at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport and sent back home.

Johntrell White and Nadia Bailey arrived in Hawaii last week without valid COVID-19 exemptions or pre-tests, according to Hawaii’s Department of Public Safety and the state's attorney general’s office.

White told an airport screener he would give her $2,000 to pass through without having to quarantine. Bailey also allegedly told the same screener she would give an additional $1,000 to let them both through without quarantining, the department said.

The screener alerted the deputy sheriffs at the airport, and the two visitors were arrested and charged with bribery. The Attorney General’s investigation continues.

Visitors to Hawaii are required to provide a negative coronavirus test result report done within 72 hours of their arrival to avoid the mandatory 10-day quarantine. If test results are not available before boarding, or are indeterminate, the traveler must quarantine for 10 days or the length of the stay, whichever is shorter, according to Hawaii’s “Safe Travels” program.

The day Bailey and White were charged, officials said a 44-year-old Michigan visitor was also arrested for violating quarantine rules. A Waikīkī area hotel alerted agents when Anthony Johnson of Rouge River did not show up at his designated place of quarantine and in fact had checked into another hotel, the release added.

People across the U.S. are using different ways to skip COVID-19 rules. Two Cailfornia residents were arrested on Thursday for violating Hawaii's quarantine rules. They were found after an alert was sent out to Waikīkī hotels. The two had checked into another hotel on the pretense of being Hawaii residents, officials said.

Two men were arrested on Feb. 11 after they posed as federal officers at a South Florida hotel to avoid wearing masks. They threatened to arrest the employees of the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort and impose a fine on the hotel when asked to cover their faces. They were arrested after a hotel staff member found them suspicious and called the police.