Traveler Tried To Sneak Bullets Past Security At Newark Airport: TSA

NEWARK, NJ — Authorities have come across all sorts of hidden items arrive at a checkpoint at Newark Airport over the years: gun parts hidden in a box of Legos, drugs concealed in candy wrappers, a living turtle stashed in a traveler’s pants.

On Tuesday, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers made another unusual find when a passenger passed through the airport – more than a dozen bullets that were “artfully concealed” inside an aluminum foil box.

According to the TSA, the ammunition was detected when the traveler’s carry-on bag entered a checkpoint x-ray unit and triggered an alarm. When the carry-on bag was opened and inspected, a TSA officer found an aluminum foil box.

What was inside?

“Upon further inspection, the box was opened and the cardboard tube inside was found to be concealing 16 bullets, each one individually wrapped and inserted into the tube,” the TSA reported.

Port Authority police were notified and questioned the traveler along with their traveling companion. The pair were ticketed to fly to the Dominican Republic, but they missed their flight and were permitted to leave the airport — without the ammunition, authorities said.

“When an item goes through our checkpoint X-ray units and the item triggers an alarm, our officers need to resolve the alarm,” said Thomas Carter, TSA’s federal security director for New Jersey.

“In this case, the resolution was the discovery of ammunition that had been intentionally concealed in an attempt to sneak it on a plane,” Carter alleged.

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TRAVELING WITH GUNS

According to the TSA, guns can be transported on a flight if they are unloaded, packed in a locked, hard-sided case and declared to the airline. The airline will be sure that the gun travels with checked baggage in the belly of the plane, never in the cabin of the plane.

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