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Grenade terror suspect arrested
Police are continuing to question a man who smuggled a live hand grenade on to a plane bound for London with 125 passengers on board. The 37-year-old was stopped by Customs officers in the green channel at Gatwick airport's North Terminal after arriving on British Airways flight 2048 from Bogota, Colombia. Unconfirmed reports suggested that the man arrested under the Terrorism Act with a grenade in his luggage was also carrying a copy of the Koran. Isn't a grenade issued with each copy of the Koran? But Scotland Yard and Customs would not discuss what else was in his bags. Other reports said he was of Bangladeshi origin but Customs could not confirm this and said he was carrying a Venezuelan passport. Only one passport? Must be a low ranking terrorist then. He was arrested after Customs officers stopped him in the green channel of the North Terminal shortly after the flight landed at 1.23pm. Army liaison officers were called to inspect the suspect bag and discovered that the grenade inside was live. The grenade, which was believed to have been in the man's hold-luggage, not his hand luggage, was removed from the scene for forensic tests. "I'm sorry, sir, but you must place all weapons in your checked baggage." Customs said officers never made "random" checks but used various information including "profiling" of passengers in order to establish whether an individual gave cause for suspicion. See, profiling does work. A BA spokesman said an investigation had begun into how his baggage had got on to the plane undetected, with attention focusing on security at Caracas airport. Security? What security? Posted by: Steve 2003-02-14 |
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