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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1797227/posts

Man sneaks 14 guns into jet's cabin at OIA
orlando sentinel ^ | March 7, 2007

Posted on 03/07/2007 10:24:02 PM PST by stainlessbanner

An airline employee at Orlando International Airport used his security privileges Monday to sneak a duffel bag containing 13 handguns, an assault rifle and 8 pounds of marijuana aboard a Delta flight to San Juan.

Puerto Rico police arrested Thomas Anthony Munoz, 22, of Kissimmee and confiscated the weapons after he walked off Delta Air Lines Flight 933 on Monday afternoon, carrying a bagful of weapons. It was unclear Tuesday night precisely who notified Puerto Rico authorities at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport near the capital of San Juan, but it's possible that Munoz's arrest was part of a larger gun-running and drug investigation.

A federal official insisted that passengers were never in danger.

More here:Orlando Sentinel

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KEYWORDS: OIA; ORLANDO; PUERTORICO; SANJUAN; TERRORIST; Click to Add Keyword
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A sworn affidavit by an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Puerto Rico states that police on the island were tipped by authorities in Orlando. According to ATF agent Marco Carrillo's affidavit, Munoz used his Comair identification card to sneak the weapons aboard. Munoz told Carrillo that another employee at the Orlando airport recruited him to smuggle the drugs and guns aboard after learning that he was having money problems.
That employee, identified in the affidavit only as ZAB, told Munoz he had smuggled guns and drugs to Puerto Rico before. He then offered Munoz $4,000 to $5,000 to do the same, Carrillo wrote in the affidavit. Carrillo went on to describe how the two men planned the deal: On Friday, they met at a convenience store in Kissimmee where ZAB received two wire transfers for $1,800 from a contact in Puerto Rico. The next day, they returned to the same store and received another wire transfer of an undetermined amount of money. Then, Sunday, Munoz went to ZAB's house in Kissimmee, where he watched the man pack the duffel bag with marijuana and weapons that he had bought at a gun show in Tampa.

At about 2 a.m. Monday, Munoz returned to ZAB's house, where the two men plotted how Munoz would skirt the security network at the airport. They arrived at the airport an hour later and gained access to restricted areas by using their identification cards, Carrillo stated. That's how Munoz was able to sneak the bag past the airport checkpoints manned by the Transportation Security Administration. He placed the guns and drugs at a secure area near a departure gate, and by 11:04 a.m. he was boarding the plane with the duffel bag. It's not clear how much federal authorities knew at this time or whether they had agents aboard the plane watching Munoz. Puerto Rico police Superintendent Pedro Toledo said Tuesday that gun running from the mainland, especially Central Florida, is a major problem on the island that fuels a black market and a high murder rate.

More here:Orlando Sentinel

1 posted on 03/07/2007 10:24:05 PM PST by stainlessbanner

http://za.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-03-08T062923Z_01_BAN823348_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-CONGO-DEMOCRATIC-URANIUM-20070308.XML

"Congo arrests atomic research chief - government"
Thu Mar 8, 2007 8:29 AM GMT
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By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo's top nuclear research official has been arrested, the government said on Wednesday, after a Kinshasa newspaper reported uranium had gone missing from an atomic institute in the city.

"We have been informed that he has been arrested," said Godefoid Mayobo, minister in the Prime Minister's office and government spokesman.

"We are waiting for the results of the inquiry. We are not aware of the details." He did not say why Professor Fortunat Lumu, Commissioner General for Atomic Energy, was arrested.

Kinshasa's Le Phare newspaper reported on Wednesday two senior officials had been detained after the disappearance of around 100 bars of uranium from the city's Regional Centre for Atomic Energy.

The centre houses a small, inactive research reactor on a university campus."