Sixteen bullets, each carefully wrapped in aluminum had been stuffed into the cardboard tube and placed in the aluminum foil box. They were intercepted by TSA officers at Newark Liberty International Airport on March 18. (TSA photo)
NEWARK, N.J. – Transportation Security Administration officers intercepted 16 bullets that were artfully concealed inside an aluminum foil box at one of the security checkpoints at Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday, March 18.
The ammunition was detected when the traveler’s carry-on bag entered the checkpoint X-ray unit and triggered an alarm. When the carry-on bag was opened and inspected to determine what triggered the alarm, a TSA officer removed an aluminum foil box. 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.
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—minus the ammunition, which was confiscated by the police.
“Our TSA officers are there to ensure that nothing prohibited is carried onto a flight,” said Thomas Carter, TSA’s Federal Security Director for New Jersey. “When an item goes through our checkpoint X-ray units and the item triggers an alarm, our officers need to resolve the alarm. In this case the resolution was the discovery of ammunition that had been intentionally concealed in an attempt to sneak it on a plane. I commend our officers for their thoroughness in preventing 16 bullets from getting past the checkpoint.”