Marine arrested after deadly weapons found
April 20, 2009 - 9:00 pm
State police and security officials said a U.S. Marine was arrested Sunday morning at Boston's Logan International Airport after screeners found bomb-making materials, a gun and ammunition in his checked baggage.
Officials said the flight originated in Las Vegas.
A McCarran International Airport spokeswoman deferred immediate comment to the Transportation Security Administration.
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said 22-year-old Cpl. Justin Reed, of Jacksonville, N.C., was booked on US Airways Flight 877 to Charlotte, N.C. Davis said Reed arrived in Boston on the Las Vegas flight earlier Sunday morning. Davis said the TSA is trying to determine why the items were not detected during a screening in Las Vegas.
Reed was charged with possession of an infernal machine and possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of an airport. Bail was set at $50,000. He will be arraigned Tuesday.
TSA screeners called State Police at 7:10 a.m. after a screen discovered the following undeclared items in Reed's checked baggage: a locked handgun box containing a semi-automatic handgun, a fully loaded gun magazine, several boxes of 9 mm and 7.62 mm ammunition, three model rocket engines containing an explosive mixture, military pull-type fuses, switches, electronics kit boxes with various components, and a hand grenade fuse assembly with detonator.
The passenger in this case had not declared the weapon, she said. Davis said all checked baggage on domestic flights is required to be screened by TSA on originating flights.
Reed's bags had to be screened again at Logan because baggage handlers inadvertently routed them to baggage claim instead of onto his connecting flight to Charlotte. Typically bags are not rescreened during a layover.
The Review-Journal contributed to this report.