Officials said a smuggling case in which TSA screeners allegedly allowed luggage with drugs inside through checkpoints at Los Angeles International Airport represents a troubling security breach.

"In this case it was narcotics; we want to make sure the next time it's not other dangerous materials," said David Herzog, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case.

The case represents a "significant breakdown of the screening system," U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte Jr. said in a statement, adding the accused screeners "placed greed above the nation's security needs."

Court records describe an elaborate scheme.

The man with eight pounds of methamphetamine in his carry-on bag stood in the snaking security line at Los Angeles International Airport's Terminal 4, inching toward the checkpoint, when a TSA screener approached.

But it wasn't to stop the contraband, according to prosecutors. It was to make sure it got through.

The screener, John Whitfield, allegedly told the man to get to the back of the line so he and his luggage would get to the X-ray machines when Whitfield's shift started. That way, he would be the one watching the methamphetamine show up on screen; and in exchange for $1,200, Whitfield allowed it through, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Authorities filed trafficking and bribery charges against Whitfield and three other current and former Transportation Security Administration screeners, alleging they received thousands of dollars in cash bribes in exchange for turning a blind eye on drugs packed in suitcases.

The 40-page indictment details half a dozen alleged incidents from January to July 2011 in which the screeners allowed drug couriers or sources working with federal authorities to smuggle cocaine, methamphetamine or marijuana into airport terminals to be taken onto outbound flights. Also charged in the indictment are three suspected drug couriers who are accused of bribing the screeners.

The alleged orchestrator was Naral Richardson, a 30-year-old former TSA employee, authorities said. Richardson, according to prosecutors, would arrange for the courier and the screener to meet ahead of time and give the screener a cellphone to be used to coordinate the "pass-through."

It was Richardson who prosecutors allege set up Whitfield's June 2011 plot. Whitfield allegedly asked Richardson whether it would be "white girls" or "Green Bay Packers" he would be helping through security. Neither, he was told — it wasn't cocaine or marijuana, but "crystal," or methamphetamine.

The 23-year-old screener allegedly instructed the drug courier to say he had a pacemaker so he would get a hand pat-down and eliminate the possibility of a random bag search. Once the eight pounds of methamphetamine had safely passed through, Whitfield allegedly met the drug courier in a bathroom and received his payment, the indictment states.