NEWARK, N.J. (1010 WINS) — TSA agents stopped a traveler at a Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday who was trying to smuggle 16 bullets into the Dominican Republic by wrapping them in aluminum foil, officials said.
The traveler’s carry-on bag sounded an alarm as it went through a checkpoint X-ray unit, TSA said. During bag inspection, a TSA officer pulled out an aluminum foil box and discovered 16 bullets individually wrapped in aluminum foil and concealed in the cardboard tube.
“When an item goes through our checkpoint X-ray units and the item triggers an alarm, our officers need to resolve the alarm,” TSA’s Federal Security Director for New Jersey Thomas Carter said. “In this case the resolution was the discovery of ammunition that had been intentionally concealed in an attempt to sneak it on a plane.”
Port Authority Police questioned the traveler and their traveling companion, and confiscated the ammunition. They missed their flight and left the airport, officials said.
“I commend our officers for their thoroughness in preventing 16 bullets from getting past the checkpoint,” Carter said.