1 of 3 | Transportation Security Administration staff discovered the grenades during x-ray screening. Photo courtesy of Hawaii Police Department/Release
July 11 (UPI) — A Japanese man has been arrested at Hawaii’s international airport after a pair of inert grenades were found in his carry-on luggage.
According to the Hawaii Police Department, 41-year-old Akito Fukushima of Kanazawa, the capital of Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture, was arrested shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday on a first-degree terroristic threatening charge.
Authorities said in a statement that Fukushima was attempting to depart the United States when the two grenades in his luggage were detected by Transportation Security Administration staff during x-ray screening.
At 5:44 a.m., Police officers secured and evacuated the terminal, resulting in what the police department described as “a brief halt in operations” as the bomb squad determined the grenades were inert.
Halted airport operations resumed at 6:50 a.m.
Fukushima was transported to the East Hawaii Detention Facility where he remains in police custody, authorities said.
“Police remind the public that replicas of explosives, such as hand grenades, are prohibited in checked and carry-on baggage,” the Hawaii Police Department said. “TSA officers also have the discretion to prohibit any item through the screening checkpoint if they believe it poses a security threat.”
Though unloaded firearms and ammunition can be transported on a plane in a locked hard-sided container as checked baggage when declared at the airport, grenades are listed as a prohibited item.
Each year, TSA agents confiscate thousands of firearms at airport security checkpoints.
On the day Fukushima was arrested, the TSA announced that it had seized 3,269 firearms at U.S. airport security checkpoints during the first half of the year, representing 19 firearms detected a day.