NEW YORK – Police say a 24-year-old Canadian woman has been arrested at Kennedy Airport with handguns, ammunition and 33 pounds of marijuana in her checked baggage.
Joseph Pentangelo is the spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police. He says the Scarborough, Ontario, woman was arrested at about 9:30 a.m. yesterday in Terminal 5.
He says Nyesha McPherson had two .40-caliber handguns, 350 rounds of ammunition and four magazines in addition to the drugs, all concealed in boxes, tubs and household products.
Pentangelo says she had been ticketed to fly to Barbados.
According to The New York Times, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers first became suspicious when McPherson’s checked luggage set off an alarm on a baggage-screening machine.
When an agent picked up the bags, they seemed strangely heavy, according to the authorities.
The bags were stuffed with a seemingly benign assortment of household items, including boxes for baby wipes, coffee, floor-dusting sheets, lemonade mix, iced tea mix and a box of cat litter.
However, TSA officials said none of those products were in the containers.
McPherson has been charged with first-degree criminal possession of marijuana, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a firearm, possession of high-capacity magazines and possession of ammunition.
She was awaiting arraignment on this and it was unclear if she had a lawyer. (AP/NY Times)
