A man traveling with an altered Saudi Arabian passport was in federal court Monday after a pressure cooker was discovered in his luggage at the Detroit airport over the weekend.

The man, identified in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court as Hussain Al Kwawahir, made his initial court appearance Monday on charges of altering a passport and lying to customs officials.

Two pressure cooker bombs were used in the attacks that killed three people and injured more than 250 others last month at the Boston Marathon.

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Al Kwawahir, 33, wasn't charged with any terrorism-related offenses, however, and U.S. officials told NBC News they were handling the incident as simply a documents case.

The incident occurred Saturday at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Mich., authorities said. When customs officials noticed that a page had been removed from Al Kwawahir's passport, they examined his luggage and found the pressure cooker, the complaint said.

Al Kwawahir, who was flying into Detroit from Amsterdam, told agents he didn't know how or why the page had been removed.

Al Kwawahir first explained the pressure cooker by saying he'd bought it as a gift for his nephew, who he said was a student at the University of Toledo in Ohio, believing they weren't sold in the U.S. He then changed his story, saying his nephew had managed to buy a pressure cooker in the U.S. but that it had broken.

The complaint didn't explain why the nephew needed someone to fly into the country with a pressure cooker, but the U.S. officials told NBC News that federal agents tracked him down and said he does, indeed, cook with one. 

The Associated Press quoted the young man, Nasser Almarzooq, as saying he'd asked his uncle to bring him the pressure cooker because he wanted to cook lamb and the cookers he bought in the U.S. didn't work.

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Pete Williams of NBC News contributed to this report.

A massive chain-reaction crash on an interstate highway in Detroit on Thursday killed three people, including two children, and left at least 40 injured, local authorities said. That was the first of three major pileups reported on icy Michigan roads Thursday amid blinding snow squalls.

The accident on I-75 in Detroit, which involved cars as well as semi trucks, killed two children in one vehicle and one adult in another vehicle, Michigan State Police confirmed. There were six crash scenes over an approximately one-mile-long stretch, involving 30-35 vehicles, they said. In total, 300-400 vehicles were on the stretch of roadway, most of them blocked by the wreckage.

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Motorists and passengers who were able to climb out of their vehicles huddled together on the side of the road, some visibly distraught, others looking dazed. A man and woman hugged under the gray, cloud-filled skies, a pair of suitcases next to them and a bumper on the ground behind.

Motorists interviewed by the Detroit Free Press described a sudden snow squall that whipped through the area, blinding them. Drivers slammed on their brakes and then slid on the icy road, they said.

"It got real bad, real quick," Greg Galuszka of Brownstown Township told the paper. "It turned to ice real quick."

The accident started in the southbound lanes of the I-75 bridge across the Rouge River in southwest Detroit, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

At least a dozen people were transported to area hospitals to be treated for injuries, including broken bones, head trauma and lacerations, the Free Press reported, citing Detroit EMS Chief Jerald James. He said at least 30 more people were treated for injuries at the scene.

Many people in the cars had left their vehicles and moved a safe distance from the crash, according to WDIV. The Red Cross was on the scene handing out blankets, food and beverages as authorities worked to clear the debris and get the busy thoroughfare reopened.

Elsewhere in Michigan, a pileup of about 10 tractor-trailers and about six cars on westbound I-94 caused some injuries, but no fatalities had been reported, according to state police.

A third multiple-car crash took place on U.S. Highway 23 in Genesee County, according to Chris Swanson in the sheriff's office. What began with a rolled pickup truck quickly escalated into a massive pileup that included 52 cars and five semi-trucks, he said. There were no fatalities, though 14 people were transported to hospitals with varying degrees of injury, none of which was considered life-threatening, Swanson said.

The state's transportation department is providing frequent updates on all three accidents through its Twitter account. At about 3:30 ET, the department tweeted that all lanes of I-75 had been reopened.

Michigan didn't get its first major snowfall until after Christmas — later than usual. Like most of the Midwest, it was expected to get less snow than normal as major storm systems veered to the north and south of the state.

But Detroit is apparently now experiencing snow caused by the "lake effect," when a cold wave crosses over the warmer-than-normal water of the Great Lakes.

WXYZ-TV in Detroit reported a winter weather advisory in effect until 7 p.m. Thursday.

"Watch for bursts of heavy snow and icy roads.... Snow accumulations of 2-4 inches will be possible with these intense snow bands," with winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour, according to the forecast. "Visibilities could go close to zero in the heaviest bands of snow."

Meanwhile, another multicar crash was being reported on I-70 in Hendricks County, Ind., NBC affiliate WTHR reported. According to the initial accounts, that pileup involves dozens of vehicles and serious injuries. The report cites snow squalls and slippery roads there as well and says the interstate is shut down in both directions at the site west of Indianapolis, near mile marker 65.

A Detroit man described by federal agents as a formerly high-ranking gangster is breaking his silence about the unsolved mystery in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa after decades of refusing to answer questions.

The man -- who federal agents say is a main character in the infamous unsolved mystery -- says the union leader was buried in a field in suburban Detroit -- about 20 miles north of the restaurant where he was last seen.  

Eighty-five years old and barely able to walk, Tony Zerilli never thought this day would come. 

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“I’m dead broke. I got no money,” Zerilli told NBC 4 New York. “My quality of life is zero.”

It’s certainly not what you would expect to hear from a man the feds say was once a high-ranking member of the Detroit La Cosa Nostra family. 

Read more at NBC New York

“He actually had risen up at one point to the underboss – or second in command,” Andy Arena, former head of the FBI for New York and Detroit, said of Zerilli.

Former U.S. Attorney Keith Corbett, who prosecuted organized crime in Detroit for 20 years, says Detroit's mafia families share blood relations in addition to their sworn bonds, which is one reason why Hoffa’s disappearance has gone unsolved.

In July 1975, Hoffa told people he was going to meet two men at a restaurant in suburban Detroit. One was a suspected member of the Detroit mafia. The other was a Teamster boss from New Jersey. Hoffa, who’d been investigated for dealings with the mafia, was seen at the restaurant -- and then never again.

“Organized crime was involved in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa,” Corbett said.

“I think the interesting thing about the Hoffa disappearance was that it was compartmentalized to only a few people," Arena said. "They kept that thing quiet."

Until now. Zerilli says he wants to set the record straight about his life -- and what happened to Hoffa.

Zerilli denies ever being in the mafia or having anything to do with the disappearance of Hoffa. 

"What happened to Hoffa had nothing to do with me in any way, shape or form,” Zerilli said. 

Zerilli says he was crushed when Hoffa vanished. It was news he received while behind bars after he was convicted for being involved in illegal operations in Las Vegas casinos.

“They accused me while I was away," Zerilli said of his time in prison. "If that’s not an alibi I don’t know what the hell an alibi is."

"If I wasn’t away I don’t think it ever would’ve happened, that’s all I can tell you," said Zerilli. "I would’ve done anything in the world to protect Jim Hoffa.”

Still, when Zerilli was released from prison, the feds were all over him -- they demanded information about Hoffa’s disappearance. That didn’t do much good back then and even today Zerilli says he refuses to name names.

“I’m not a stool pigeon,” he said. 

But the feds are convinced that Zerilli knows what happened. 

“Clearly when he returned he would’ve been a person, based on his position in the hierarchy, who would have been able to learn the facts and circumstances surrounding the disappearance of James Earl Hoffa,” said Corbett.

Zerilli says he’s been frustrated watching the FBI chase countless tips from publicity hounds seeking attention by saying they know Hoffa’s burial spot – rumors that have included locations around Detroit and the Meadowlands in New Jersey.  

“All this speculation about where he is and he’s not," Zerilli said. "They say he was in a meat grinder. It’s all baloney."

The truth, Zerilli says, is that Hoffa never got very far from where he was last seen. He believes the union leader's final resting place is about 20 miles north of the restaurant where he was last scene, in a field in northern Oakland County, Mich.

He was buried in a shallow grave and the plan was to move the body at another time, but Hoffa's remains were never moved from the first spot where they were buried, Zerilli said.

"Once he was buried here, he was buried and they let it go,” Zerilli said.

When told about Zerilli’s revelations, Corbett, a man who’d worked organized crime in Detroit for two decades, was flabbergasted. 

“The bureau had a short list of people they wanted to talk to about that and I can’t think of anybody on that list who was more highly placed then Anthony Zerilli,” said Corbett. "This is certainly the most interesting and attractive lead that has come up since I’ve been involved with this -- and I think the bureau would react the same way.”

For his part, Zerilli wants closure for himself and Hoffa’s family.

“I’d like to just prove to everybody that I’m not crazy," Zerilli said. "And it means a lot to me. What happened, happened while I was in jail. And I feel very, very bad about it and it should never have happened to Jim Hoffa. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. 

Zerilli also wants a payday. He's working on a book and has a website, hoffafound.com. He believes that he can make money if -- and when -- Hoffa’s body is found in that field. He’s waiting on the FBI to make the next move.

The homicide rate in the city of Detroit continued a grim upward trend in 2012, hitting its highest peak in nearly two decades, officials said Thursday.

A dwindling population -- 706,585 people in 2011, according to the U.S. Census estimate -- and the rise in homicides combined to make Detroit’s murder rate among the highest in the nation, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Police Chief Chester Logan announced at a press conference.  

“We’ve just lost respect for each other; we’ve lost respect for life,” Bing said. “I don’t want to say that you can forget about this generation or the generation before us, but if we’re going to solve the problem, we’ve got to get into the heads and the minds and the hearts of our young people, and it’s going to take all of us to do that.”

Detroit’s total of 411 homicides in 2012, up from 377 the previous year, includes 386 criminal homicides and 25 “justifiable homicides” that included three shootings by police, according to numbers released by the city. The number of criminal homicides increased 12 percent from 344 in 2011. The total in 2010 was 308. 

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Even as violent crime rates in the U.S. fell for the fifth consecutive year in 2011, the homicide rate in Detroit rose to a level higher than nearly 40 years ago when the city was known as the Murder Capital, the Detroit News reported. The same day the city's official crime statistics were announced, a Detroit woman was charged with fatally stabbing her 8-year-old daughter and a cab driver was killed in a double shooting on the city’s northwest side.

“I think the message that we want our citizens to understand is that we need them. We need them to help us. I just don’t believe that our police department should have the total responsibility for safety in the city," Bing said. "There are, as the chief said, he can have an additional thousand cops, but there are things that are happening in homes and families in the communities and the neighborhoods that whether a cop was there or not is not going to stop the crime.” 

Detroit's Big Three trying to power up Motor City

Homicides have declined nationwide for years, most notably in New York, where in 2012 there were 414 homicides and a rate of one per 19,915 people.

New Orleans reported a small drop from 199 to 193 in 2012. With a population 360,740, the rate was one per 1,869 residents.

In Washington, D.C., there were 88 homicides in 2012, the lowest total since 1961. With a population of 617,966, that puts the rate at one per 7,023 people.

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Elsewhere across the country, homicide rates made only slight jumps compared to Detroit. 

• In Los Angeles, the homicide rate increased from 291 to 294 last year, with a population of nearly 3.8 million.
• The homicide rate in Chicago went up nearly 17 percent in 2012, topping 500 for the first time in four years. Last year’s total was 505, up from 433 in 2011.
• Homicides in Cleveland, Ohio, spiked in 2012 with 97 and a rate of one per 4,060 people.
• Philadelphia homicides increased from 324 to 331 in 2012. With a population of 1.54 million, that amounts to one per 4,642.
• In St. Louis, which has a population of 318,169 people, the rate stayed the same at between 2011 and 2012 at one per 2,815 people. There were 113 homicides last year, well below the average of 141 for the five previous years.

Detroit Police Chief Logan said the criminal activity in the city comes from a small minority of the city's population.

"These aren't the average citizens we are talking about," Logan said. "Many of these people are involved in nefarious walks of life, and there's a difference between a law-abiding citizen who shoots a gun and a criminal or a thug who's out there using one."

Still, Mayor Bing offered messages of hope for the city. 

“We can’t give up, we can’t give in, and we’ve really got to let the small percentage of our population that’s creating havoc in our city know that we’re not going to continue to accept it and all of us need to get involved and help each other solve the problem,” Bing said. 

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DETROIT -- Gov. Rick Snyder put a new emergency manager law on the books in Michigan on Thursday, weeks after voters repealed a version that gave sweeping powers to a single person to overhaul financially distressed communities.

The new law, passed by a Republican-controlled Legislature, will give local governments and ailing school districts the opportunity to choose their own remedy. If a review team finds that a financial emergency exists, those communities can request an emergency manager, ask for a mediator, file for bankruptcy or introduce a reform plan with the state.

"This legislation demonstrates that we clearly heard, recognized and respected the will of the voters," Snyder, a Republican, said in a statement. "It builds in local control and options while also ensuring the tools to protect ... residents, students and taxpayers."

The law won't kick in until late March. Under the old law, the power to send an emergency manager rested solely with the governor. It was a threat to labor unions because managers had the power to throw out contracts.

Under the new law, a manager still would have the power to change contracts. But local officials also have the option to develop an alternative plan if it saves the same amount of money as the manager's proposals. Local governments can remove a manager after one year with a two-thirds vote of its elected officials.

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The philosophy behind the law is that troubled local governments may lack the political consensus needed to get back on track or they simply need expertise to get past their financial problems.

The law includes a $770,000 state appropriation to cover managers' salaries, a provision that would shield it from another statewide vote because spending bills are immune to referendums. Rep. Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, accused Republicans of going to "extreme lengths" with that provision.

Managers are working now in Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint, Pontiac and Allen Park, as well as in the Muskegon Heights, Highland Park and Detroit school districts. But they're operating under a decades-old law with fewer teeth that automatically kicked in after the November election. The communities have struggled with lower tax revenue due to a drop in property values and a weak economy.

Allen Park, near Detroit, was stable until it sold bonds for a movie studio that went bust. Residents recently voted down a tax increase.

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Ray Holman, a lobbyist for a UAW local that represents 17,000 state workers, gathered signatures to get a repeal of the old law on the ballot. He said the new law is "only slightly better" and predicted critics would explore a legal challenge.

"It's the exact same law with window dressing. Ultimately, it's a dictator's law," Holman said. "It's disingenuous to say Gov. Snyder listened to the people. He's flat-out wrong."

Threatened with a state takeover last spring, Detroit is operating under a set of financial reforms negotiated by the Snyder administration and city officials. The city, however, continues to struggle and is under yet another review.

Snyder promised last week that some type of "action will be taken" in Detroit in the weeks ahead, but probably before the new manager law takes effect.

The City Council has sent a plan to state Treasurer Andy Dillon that calls for layoffs, days off without pay, the sale of some assets and possible pay cuts, council members said during meetings Thursday at the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.

They said the money-saving moves exceed those proposed by Mayor Dave Bing, who has said 400 to 500 layoffs, or 5 percent of the workforce, are likely in the new year. 

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Phone records emerged Monday as key evidence in a murder case against a suburban man charged with killing four suspected escorts and hiding their bodies in car trunks in Detroit last year, events that reinforced the city's unflattering image as a dumping ground for victims.

James Brown, 24, was charged with first-degree murder Monday, six months after he was arrested on lesser charges. The women were killed in pairs last December after visiting Brown's Macomb County home, and their bodies were stashed that way, too, police said.

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Chikita Madison, whose daughter Renisha Landers, 23, was a victim, said she fought back tears during a brief court hearing in Sterling Heights, a Detroit suburb. 

"Our daughters are in heaven," Madison said outside of court. "We'll see them when it's our time."

The bodies of Landers and Demesha Hunt, 24, were found Dec. 19. Six days later, on Christmas, police found the bodies of two other women in their 20s, Natasha Curtis and Vernithea McCrary, in the trunk of a burning car.

Brown said little in court and let his attorney enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

Minutes earlier, attorney Jeff Cojocar told reporters that his client maintains his innocence "100 percent."

At least three of the four victims promoted themselves as escorts-for-hire on Backpage.com, which carries classified and personal ads. Investigators believe that's how Brown made contact with them. Phone records show the victims' last calls were transmitted through wireless towers near Brown's home in Sterling Heights, police Det. Mary Whiting told a judge.

Brown has been in custody since May on charges of mutilation of a dead body and arson in connection to the bodies found in cars. Prosecutors didn't charge him with murder at the time but said he was the chief suspect.

Cojocar suggested Brown may have incriminated himself during a 3½-hour recorded interview with Detroit police, and said he would try to get the statements suppressed.

"There are some things that are not favorable that we'll need to attack," Cojocar said.

4 women found dead in car trunks; Detroit police tie 3 to escort services

Detroit police led the investigation for months until determining the women were killed elsewhere. Then-Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. said he was angered that the city's dark, desolate neighborhoods were becoming a place to drop bodies.

Detroit police turned evidence over to Sterling Heights, including an interview with Brown.

The causes of death still are listed as unknown by the Wayne County medical examiner, said Sterling Heights Lt. Kevin Reese.

Before the court hearing, prosecutors met privately with victims' relatives in a small room.

"The parents and relatives of these women have suffered so greatly. We will work to bring closure to these grieving families," Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith said in a statement.

Hunt's mother, Denise Reid, said she didn't know anything about her daughter's connection to Backpage.com.

"I'm hearing it like you are," she said. "It's not important to me. It's not relevant. It still doesn't justify taking my daughter's life."

 

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DETROIT -- Mayor Dave Bing said Wednesday that he expects to impose unpaid furlough days on city workers and other cost-saving actions Jan. 1 to make up for at least $10 million the city won't get to bolster its cash flow.

Bing said the cuts are necessary because the City Council failed to approve a contract called for under Detroit's fiscal overhaul plan.

The council voted 8-1 Tuesday to delay action on a $300,000 contract for the Miller Canfield law firm to advise Bing on financial matters. 

The city's top lawyer told the council the contract could be a conflict of interest because Miller Canfield wrote milestone agreements in Bing's reform program. Some on the council questioned whether the contract was legal under the city's charter because it was neither prepared nor approved by the city's chief on-staff lawyer.

Detroit has struggled with its finances for many years as the city's population has dwindled and the automotive industry that once drove economic activity in the Motor City has diminished.

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The city of 700,000 has been criticized by state officials for slow progress on financial reforms. It needs the money to avoid running out of cash by the end of the year. The Michigan Finance Authority raised $137 million for Detroit earlier this year through a debt sale. While Detroit received some of that money, Michigan Treasury officials tied another $30 million to Detroit's progress on reforms. 

The state says Detroit won't get $10 million in bond money due Tuesday. And $20 million due to Detroit next month also is in danger. 

"If the milestones are not completed, the funds will not be released from escrow," Caleb Buhs, spokesman for the Michigan Treasury Department, told Reuters.

"The actions Detroit must take for the treasurer to release the funds from escrow were clearly established in the Memorandum of Understanding, sent to the mayor and city council last week," Buhs said.

City Council President Charles Pugh blamed Bing for the setback. "Why is Mayor Bing putting the city's finances at risk by marrying himself to one law firm?" he told reporters, adding he wants to meet with the mayor this week to choose a law firm that the council can accept.

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Projections presented by city officials to Detroit's oversight board earlier this month showed the city's weekly cash flow at just $4.1 million in mid-December before dropping to a negative $4.8 million at the end of the year.

Detroit's financial advisory board was created under an agreement that allowed Detroit to avoid the appointment of an emergency manager to run the city while giving the state some oversight and allowing the mayor to disregard collective bargaining agreements with unions.

The city council did approve on Tuesday a contract with Ernst & Young to provide cash-flow analysis for 2013. This was another condition set in the deal with the state.

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Pugh said the council had previously approved a contract with consulting and actuarial firm Milliman for pension services, which was also a condition of the deal. While the council is officially scheduled to be in recess until early next year, Pugh said it could come back in a special session at any time.

Also on Tuesday, the council rejected a nearly $48 million contract with St. Paul-based EMA Inc to run some of the city's water and sewer department.

Detroit faced a cash crisis this summer that led to warning it could default on some bonds. The cash crunch and default were averted by the bond sale. 

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press and Reuters.

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Updated at 5:30 p.m. ET: A different sort of research took place at the Detroit Public Library on Tuesday, as FBI officials armed with search warrants entered the library's main offices and scoured through records, according to local news reports.

Nine FBI agents were at the library's main offices in Detroit on Tuesday morning, The Detroit News reported. They arrived at 8 a.m. and left around 11 a.m., with three cardboard boxes and "what appeared to be computer equipment," according to the newspaper.

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"I don't know how many (search) warrants," library spokesperson A.J. Funchess told The Detroit News. "They aren't really sharing a lot of information right now."

While Funchess acknowledged the library raid, he declined to provide any further comment to NBC News.

The Detroit News reported that authorities spent much of their time in the offices of the library's chief administrative officer, Tim Cromer, who according to the newspaper has been the center of several spending controversies.

The FBI also reportedly raided Cromer's house Tuesday, a source told The Detroit News.

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A spokesperson for the FBI in Detroit, Simon Shaykhet, declined to comment.

The president of the Detroit Library Commission, Jonathan Kinloch, told Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV that the FBI’s action is justified. The commission is a seven-member group that governs Detroit's library system, and they are appointed by the Detroit Public Schools' Board of Education.

"Based on all of the concerns that have been raised over the past few months, you would expect that at this particular point there would be some outside review of the activities to see whether or not there's any wrongdoing," Kinloch told WDIV.

Detroit's library system has seen its share of woes. Last year, two of its 23 branches were closed and there was a 20 percent cut in staff, according to the Detroit Free Press. The system also faces a $10 million deficit, the Free Press added.

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