Body Armor-Wearing Passenger Stopped at LAX with Suitcase Full of Weapons and Body Bags
A Chinese-born US citizen living in Boston was stopped in LAX on his way home from Japan with a suitcase full to bursting with a variety of weapons as well as other odd items such as handcuffs, duct tape, masks, body bags, and cooking tongs.
Authorities at Los Angeles International Airport's Customs and Border Protection became suspicious when they noticed that 28-year-old Yongda Huang Harris, who had just arrived from Incheon, Korea, was wearing a bullet-proof vest and flame retardant leggings.
Asked if he would like to declare anything, Harris told the officer he had a knife in his bag, but a search revealed he was also packing a gas mask, a biohazard suit, "a device to repel dogs," billy clubs, a baton, leg irons, oven mitts, an assortment of scissors, and a full set of cutlery that included a hatchet.
He also had in his possession a powerful Commando smoke grenade "capable of filling a 40,000-cubic-foot space with smoke."
The man, who has so far been charged with one count of transporting hazardous material on an airplane, is not cooperating with federal investigators and refuses to reveal what he planning to do with the items he had in his suitcase.
A link to terrorism has so far been ruled out.
It also remains unclear how Harris managed to make it from Kansai International Airport in Japan through Incheon to Los Angeles without raising any red flags.
According to Yasunori Oshima of Japan's Land and Transport Ministry's aviation safety department, the US has not officially asked Japan to investigate the matter on their end because the luggage wasn't brought on board.
"The case does not seem to pose any immediate concerns about aviation security measures in Japan," said Oshima.
