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Update:
Man charged after suspicious package found
January 5 2007
NORWALK - Police arrested a Stamford man last night after employees at a UPS distribution center opened a package and found explosives.
Theoeoros Papadopoulos, 27, of 44 Brown Ave., was charged last night with first-degree breach of peace, criminal impersonation and second-degree forgery. He was held on $1 million bond.
Called to the UPS facility on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive just after noon, the Stamford police Bomb Squad deployed a remote control robot and determined that two cylindrical objects inside the box were flash grenades used as training aids by the military and police, Stamford police Lt. Sean Cooney said. UPS employees said that just after 11 a.m., a man came in to claim a package but lacked proper identification, Norwalk police Sgt. Ronald Pine said. Employees, believing the man might be receiving a package of drugs, opened the package after he left and found two small cylindrical objects marked explosives, police said.
An employee took the package outside, about 100 feet from the nearby Metro-North Railroad tracks, and called police at about 11:30 a.m. Police responded and called Metro-North. Two trains traveling between South Norwalk and Rowayton stations were delayed by about 50 minutes from noon to 1 p.m. while police investigated, railroad spokesman Dan Brucker said.
Several houses on the other side of the tracks on Bouton Street within a 300-foot perimeter set up by police were evacuated, Pine said. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive remained open because it was outside the area, Pine said. The Stamford Bomb Squad, the only bomb squad in lower Fairfield County, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded. "There didn't appear to be anything of federal interest" at the scene and the investigation was handled by Norwalk police, said Andy Anderson, a spokesman for the ATF field office in New Haven.
A UPS spokesman could not be reached for comment last night. The robot, equipped with a camera, spotted the manufacturer's name and telephone number on the two objects, which were about the size of a grenade, Cooney said. The manufacturer was called and the two objects were determined to contain only a small amount of explosives.
Police cleared the area and set up surveillance of the UPS center in hopes the man would return to claim the package. Papadopoulos returned with fake identification and was taken to Norwalk police headquarters. Police declined to say where the package was sent from. Norwalk police Detective Bureau head Lt. Thomas Cummings said the case was still under investigation.
Women facing terrorism charges for white powder incident
January 5, 2007, 1:05 PM EST
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Two sisters face terrorism charges after a white powder believed to be salt fell out of one of their pockets in the booking area of Bridgeport Police headquarters. A Fairfield woman and her sister, who is from Jordan, were arrested Thursday after triggering a hazardous materials emergency, police said. The building and the surrounding streets were closed most of the afternoon and into the evening. No one was injured, but 14 people _ civilian detention officers, police officers and six prisoners _ had to take showers in the Fire Department's decontamination trailer. Their clothing was also bagged.
The women, Cari Altayeb of Fairfield and Anaahn Altayeb of Jordan, were charged with acts of terrorism in connection with that incident. They also face charges of first-degree breach of peace and threatening stemming from a child custody dispute in front of the state Department of Children and Families' city office earlier in the day. The DCF incident had led to their arrest and the powder incident in the booking area. The women were being held in lieu of $1 million bond. The women's lawyer, Robert Berke, who said he had not talked to his clients, blasted police Thursday night. "They overreacted. The (terrorism) charge is extreme. The bond is extreme," Berke said.
On Thursday, the women were acting suspiciously and dropped white powder, possibly salt, outside of the DCF office, police said. After they were arrested by city police and brought to the booking area on the second floor, some of the powder fell from one of the women's pockets, Lt. James Viadero said. Police called the Fire Department. The Fairfield County Hazardous Materials Team, the FBI, state police and Scott Appleby, the city's emergency management director, responded. "We don't take anything lightly," Viadero said.
Thanks for that update Oorang.
I do appreciate it.
ADDING 1 link )to monitor) to post no. 192.
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&client=news&q=Theodoros-Papadopoulos&ie=ISO-8859-1&spell=1&oi=spell&scoring=d