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Subscribe to RSSA 28-year-old man travelling from Japan to Boston was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after investigators found him wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a suitcase containing a smoke grenade, a biohazard suit, a gas mask and leg irons. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.
A Massachusetts man has been charged with illegally transporting a smoke grenade in his checked suitcase while returning from a trip to Japan.
Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Yongda Huang Harris, 28, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Chinese descent, Friday in Los Angeles. He was flying from Japan, through South Korea and then Los Angeles, on his way to Boston.
What alerted agents to check his suitcase? It might have been the bullet-proof vest or the flame-retardant pants that he was wearing under his trench coat.
According to ICE, a search of his checked bag turned up the smoke grenade as well as "three leather-coated billy clubs, a collapsible baton, a full-face respirator, various knives, a hatchet, body bags, a biohazard suit, handcuffs, leg irons, and a device to repel dogs."
He appeared late Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles. There's no thought he was a terrorist or was plotting to do anything on the various planes he was flying on, a federal official says. But transporting a smoke grenade is illegal.
ICE isn't saying what airline allowed him to begin his journey. Court documents say his trip originated in Kansai, Japan, stopped over in Inchon, Korea, and then in Los Angeles on his way to Boston. A federal official says the Japan to Korea flight was not on a U.S. carrier.
Pete Williams is NBC News' chief justice correspondent.
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Leave a Comment:
I am sure he is a really nice guy. Certainly not up to no good.
I mean those are all reasonable things to bring on a plane with you from a foreign country, but he just had to push his luck with that smoke grenade.
They had to nail him for something. Kind of like getting Al Capone for tax fraud... it's the best they could do.
He was probably bringing souvenirs, it's not a big deal imo. It sounds like the TSA made the right call at first, but charging him with a crime??? He probably didn't even know...
The TSA is like the Fish & Game Commission with that new CATCH and RELEASE Program.
Different strokes for different folks!!
@Sick of the Situation
Yes, If we were all the same the world would be boring. If we all liked the same things there would not be enough to go around.
jojo,
Personally, I never leave home without my leg irons and body bags. You just never know when you are going to need em. :)
Be safe out there!
I guess this nut had no idea.
I would like to know what airport allowed him through security wearing a bullet proof vest without doing a very thorough search of both him and his luggage. It would seem to me that a bullet proof vest would be a huge red flag to airport security personnel. It sounds like the security must have been asleep at the switch to let this guy into the airport, let alone to board a flight.
Great! Now Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airlines are going to be asked to increase their security for flights or connecting flights to America. It was nice to not have to take off our shoes and submit to less-than-random searches in Japanese airports for the last couple years!!!
Thanks ya Chink! I bet Chinese and Chinese Americans are throwing out their own nasty slurs at you for your stupidity now!!!
So he didn't like dogs...
But cats are fine. Deer? Even better--then it's buffet time!
(oh, come on... you knew the roadkill thing had to come up somewhere)
His Christmas card is going to read; Sorry my friends - the New Years S&M party has been canceled due to a lack of props.
Maybe it is just a kinky thing, and his girlfriend will try to visit him in prison carrying uranium and sporting a land mine on her head like a beret.
Oh gee, and to think, they darn near had a hissy over my 5 oz. jar of jelly I tried to bring home from Alaska. We won't mention the nail clippers.
Darn smoke bombs. If it weren't for the smoke bombs, he would have been free and clear. Note to self: No smoke bombs.
I think he is a salesmen for police supplies.
So what is really the problem?
Other than maybe the smoke gernade, nothing illegal in his suitcase. I guess a carton of smokes could be considered a "smoke gernade."
Besides, he did not "transport" the gernade, the airline did it. Hell, we get cavity searched by our "infamous" security agents (TSA) and their counterparts overseas, whose fault is this really?
Where are the Republicans demanded his right to bare arms, or billyclubs, or smoke grenades or any other innocent item he was carrying?
It's "bear" arms, by the way. You "bare" your arms on the beach. You "bear" arms when you carry weapons. Although according to some airlines, heaven forbid that you have "bare arms." I was on a Spirit flight where they made a young woman flying from Detroit to Las Vegas buy a sweatshirt, because she was wearing a tank top.
He might've undermined his case with the conservatives by sporting the bullet-proof vest. Then again, those planes can get mighty chilly. Can't blame the guy for not wanting to catch a chest cold, now, can we?
jackass, rep dont do that. only dems
MR YOUNG AND DUMB ...
Exactly. Smoke grenades don't kill. People with smoke grenades kill.
They wont even let me on with a 5/16" nut driver - Heaven forbit a pair of toe-nail clippers.
I got on a plane (sometime in 2007) with a four-inch knife--which the TSA never found and which I forgot about. I agreed to do a pat down just before going to security (very friendly, small airport, so it was more as training practice for them), and I completely forgot about the thing until I was sitting in the pat-down area in my socks--then I realized it was in my suitcase. I flew with it, then went to the bathroom and tossed it into the trash at the next stopover, when I saw the airline doing random bag checks.
nomore66, there is a difference between carry on and checked luggage.
Headed to Boston? Maybe self-defense.
It's only self defense if he were going to Detroit. :)
Terrorist? Probably not.
Serial killer? You THINK?!?
Oh come on!!! He didn't have any duct tape. That would have clinched it ;).
As for buying this stuff in Japan...Every good serial killer knows that you don't buy this stuff at your corner hardware store. Don't you guys watch CSI? Pay cash in Japan or they will catch you.
man, i wonder what party HE was heading home from, eh? :)
maybe he's one of those vigilante superheroes we been reading about in the news lately, i guess they set up an international branch :)
either that or he is the DUMBEST hitman i have EVER read about, silly ninja :)
That must have been one hell of a vacation, is all I'm sayin'.
Asian mafia hit man!
Ninja turtle .
surprised they didn't find his tinfoil shorts. maybe they were with the plastic throwing stars in his carry-on.
Damn-it Dexter, its ok if Deb knows who you are but dont go leaving your bags out because if the police find out your screwed...
"Are you the bay harbor butcher"
body bags??? whats up with that? no it's not illegal but can we answer that question please
They're cheaper overseas. Everybody knows that.
Maybe he's a boy scout! Be prepared! Just don't be gay.
Devil's son....too funny!!
The Leg-irons give it away; he's a rapist turned butcher....
now i have proof, we are a 3rd world country. EVERYTHING GOES
i would say he had some pretty suspicous plans... un-naturalize him and send him back. he sounds like a 'serial' something.
"...while returning from a trip to Japan."
He forgot the golden rule... "What happens in Japan, stays in Japan".
Only one comment so far that came close to blaming this on a political party--that is pretty remarkable. Hats off to all the previous comments for their cleverness and originality. By the way, I live in Boston, and I hope they keep him in LA.
LA wont keep him. Everybody walks in LA. Remember OJ ? Boston is his "Final Destination". Stay safe.
I don't doubt this man was a terrorist! Why would anyone fly wth that stuff? I why would he have it, if he weren't planning on using it in the future? If I worked for TSA or ICE, these are questions I would be asking & more!!!
Sounds like he was just prepared for a typical Friday night in LA
Yea, he was headed to West Hollywood, LOL!
Get outta my country and stay OUT!! how dare you!!
Learn to read.... hes a US citizen.
John S: That's just the POINT..he shouldn't have been made a citizen!!
Background check anyone?
I guess he thought that the U.S needed a Japanese serial killer/mass murderer.
You know, if this had been someone from the MidEast or otherwise a Moslem with these items, I bet 90% or more of these comments would have been from people up-in-arms, accusing him of being a terrorist and stating he should be locked up or worse. The smoke grenade should be of concern no matter where he came from. However, the rest of the items he had with/on him were also items of concern. Could he simply be into some highly kinky sex, possibly. Could he be accumulating an arsenal of times to use in some kind of assault, also possible. This guy definitely needs to have an eye kept on his activities for a while to make sure this isn't a person of concern, like Holmes in Colorado. Finally, it's not because he's Asian or any other group, I'd be concerned if a white man came through customs/airport security will all this stuff on him.
If he was from the Middle East he would have been a terrorist.
He has one hell of a Halloween party to go to.
hey give the guy a break. Sticks and stones may break his bones, but apparently whips and chains excite him.
Stupid idiot !! I vote to revoke his citizenship and send him back to China
Back to China? Since he is Japanese and since China and Japan really dislike each other, going back thousands of years, maybe that would be a really good punishment.
OOPS! I just did what I don't like other people doing. I didn't closely read the article and see that he was Chinese (having been in Japan). Well, anyway, they probably have some pretty cool methods of punishment in China, so send him back there anyway. Now I am in complete concord with LynnM123's comment.
The last time I flew, and being aware of airport security, I went through security wearing a tee shirt, shorts and sockless sandals. My only carry on was the clothes I was going to wear, my ID and ticket. My clothes went through fine, I passed the metal detector and was pulled aside and wanded. With no alarms, I was pulled further aside and patted down, just in case, I guess. While dressing I watched an agent have a mother remove her child from a stroller, and as someone else searched the stroller, they had the mother undress the child, diaper and all! Last week I was summoned to appear for jury duty. I approached the security corridor and showed my jury notice, went through fine, and in the jury assembly room I was asked to show the notice once again. I was NEVER asked to produce ID! What a world.
Don't ya just love the consistency?