A man carrying a stun gun and other “dangerous weapons” was arrested by US Federal authorities while trying to board a flight out of Puerto Rico, the justice department has said.
Jose Pol, 59, a resident of Rhode Island, was arrested from Puerto Rico’s main international airport on Monday when he was about to board a Jet Blue flight 860 to Boston, and was carrying a stun gun, a pepper spray canister, four box-cutters and a switch blade knife, a statement by the justice department said.
Pol was in queue to pass through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) check point at the Luis Munoz Marin Airport in Carolina, when TSA agents discovered the weapons in his carry-on luggage, it said. “The TSA officer asked the defendant to accompany him to the TSA security office. Pol voluntarily went and waited in the room until FBI agents arrived and took custody of him,” the statement said.
The justice department said he was carrying two pieces of luggage, one containing a laptop and the other containing items which could be used to threaten, incapacitate, harm, injure or cause death of security personnel on board, and/or endanger lives of crew members and passengers. “We will continue to investigate this matter vigorously until we determine the defendant’s motives in attempting to board an airliner with the dangerous weapons he was carrying,” US attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velezx said.
—PTI