A New Jersey man was arrested last year for trying to board a plane with an armory's worth of weapons in his luggage, the Justice Department said Monday.
In a press release, the DOJ said that Seretse Clouden, 42, of Wilmington, New Jersey, was arrested on Dec. 30 at Newark Liberty International Airport. During a routine screening of Clouden's checked luggage, the DOJ said, TSA officers discovered "two .40 caliber Glock magazines, each containing 15 rounds of .40 caliber ammunition."
Upon further inspection of his additional luggage, Clouden was found to be transporting "an ASP expandable baton, a spring-loaded knife, a taser, a .40 caliber Glock 22 handgun, a .308 caliber DPMS Panther Arms rifle, and one 5.56 caliber AR-15 rifle," the DOJ said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Clouden also had in his possession a vest with the words "U.S. Marshal" and a Marshal's badge and credentials with his picture. The DOJ's official criminal complaint noted that "the United States Marshal Service confirmed that Clouden is not, and was not, employed [as a Marshal]," and that the materials were fake.
Clouden was charged with unlawful possession of firearms by a felon, as well as fraudulent possession of an ID document, the DOJ said. These charges together could carry a maximum prison sentence of 25 years.
This is not Clouden's first brush with the law, NBC News reports, as he previously pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a weapon in 2016.
News of Clouden's arrest followed the TSA's disclosure that it intercepted more firearms in 2022 than ever before; 6,542 guns were discovered by airport security last year, an average of 18 per day.
"It's absolutely not acceptable for firearms to be anywhere near checkpoints," TSA spokesman R. Carter Langston said in a statement.
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
