RoutemanDan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2000
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Police on Sunday arrested a Bulgarian man who tried to board a flight at Atlantic City International Airport in New Jersey carrying two box cutters and a pair of scissors in his backpack, the Transportation Security Administration said.
The 21-year-old man was the last passenger to approach the security checkpoint to board the plane and was arrested when an X-ray machine detected the prohibited items, TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said.
"One of our TSA federal screeners noticed a pair of scissors on the screen, ordered a hand check. Another screener went through the bag and found a pair of scissors embedded in a bar of soap and two box cutters inside a package that contained hand lotion," Johnson said.
At least some of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on America last year were armed with box cutters, tools with sharp replaceable blades usually used to cut cardboard.
The man was taken into custody by local police and charged with at least one count of possession of a prohibited item or weapon and was being held on $100,000 bail in the Atlantic County jail, Johnson said.
He said prosecutors would review the case to decide whether to extend the state charge or add federal charges.
News reports said the Bulgarian man, in the United States on a student visa, had a one-way ticket to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Johnson hailed the arrest as a success for a post-Sept. 11 reform which turned airport security screening over to the federal government.
"It's our job to intercept these items so that we can have an investigation not a negotiation," Johnson told Reuters. "the point is... keep this problem on the ground, don't let it get to the plane."
The 21-year-old man was the last passenger to approach the security checkpoint to board the plane and was arrested when an X-ray machine detected the prohibited items, TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said.
"One of our TSA federal screeners noticed a pair of scissors on the screen, ordered a hand check. Another screener went through the bag and found a pair of scissors embedded in a bar of soap and two box cutters inside a package that contained hand lotion," Johnson said.
At least some of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on America last year were armed with box cutters, tools with sharp replaceable blades usually used to cut cardboard.
The man was taken into custody by local police and charged with at least one count of possession of a prohibited item or weapon and was being held on $100,000 bail in the Atlantic County jail, Johnson said.
He said prosecutors would review the case to decide whether to extend the state charge or add federal charges.
News reports said the Bulgarian man, in the United States on a student visa, had a one-way ticket to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Johnson hailed the arrest as a success for a post-Sept. 11 reform which turned airport security screening over to the federal government.
"It's our job to intercept these items so that we can have an investigation not a negotiation," Johnson told Reuters. "the point is... keep this problem on the ground, don't let it get to the plane."
I just KNEW this was going to be a story about Newark Airport... 
