A Mississippi man was arrested after Transportation Security Administration officers at Newark Liberty International Airport intercepted disassembled gun parts concealed in a boot and a LEGO box.
The TSA officer detected the fully disassembled 9mm firearm in a carry-on bag at a checkpoint in Terminal A as the man’s duffle bag entered the checkpoint X-ray machine. The gun frame was jammed in the bottom of a boot below a sock that had been stuffed behind it to help conceal it. The gun’s slide, spring and gun magazine loaded with 12 bullets were detected mixed among the plastic pieces of a Black Panther LEGO set.
Port Authority Police were alerted, confiscated the items, and arrested the man, who was ticketed to fly to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
“This is an example of someone who was intentionally attempting to carry a gun onto a flight,” said Thomas Carter, TSA’s federal security director for New Jersey. “He kept changing his story, first telling us that it was a toy gun and then claiming that it belonged to his brother. Regardless of his claims, what I can tell you is that it was a fully disassembled firearm that he could easily have assembled and used on a plane. Not only does this individual face criminal charges from the police, but he also will face a stiff federal financial civil penalty that is likely to set him back several thousands of dollars.”
The federal penalty for bringing a weapon to a TSA checkpoint can be as much as $15,000, depending on the circumstances.
