Marine in airport baggage incident pleads not guilty

BOSTON -- A U.S. Marine pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he had bomb- making materials, a gun and ammunition in his baggage at a Boston airport.

Cpl. Justin Reed of Jacksonville, N.C., was freed on $2,500 bail after entering his plea to charges of possession of an infernal machine and possession of a concealed weapon at an airport at his arraignment in East Boston District Court.

Reed, 22, was arrested during a layover at Logan International Airport on Sunday morning after federal screeners found the items in his baggage. He was flying from Las Vegas to Charlotte, N.C.

Agency spokeswoman Ann Davis said the items were a locked gun box containing a semiautomatic handgun; a hand grenade fuse assembly with detonator; model rocket engines with explosive material; a loaded gun magazine; and several boxes of 9 mm and 7.62 mm ammunition.

The gun was declared with the airline, she said, but it did not have the proper paperwork when screeners in Boston found it.

A spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division told the Boston Globe that Reed uses explosives in his job training Marines at Twentynine Palms, Calif.

The Transportation Security Administration is investigating why the guns and ammunition were not detected at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.

"This incident has our full attention," Davis said.