A Florida man has been arrested for allegedly bringing 14 weapons and drugs aboard a flight from Orlando to Puerto Rico, authorities said Tuesday.
Thomas Anthony Munoz, 22, was arrested after he was found with 13 handguns, one assault rifle and eight clear bags containing marijuana on Monday, said Carlos Baixauli, a Miami-based special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Munoz of Kissimmee, Florida, boarded a Delta flight from Orlando International Airport to Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, Delta spokeswoman Chris Kelly said.
Munoz was arrested in San Juan on U.S. weapons violations and turned over to federal authorities, Puerto Rico Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo said.
"We have information to the effect that this individual had apparently done this before," Toledo told the Orlando Sentinel.
Kevin Farrington, an FBI spokesman based in Miami, said an anonymous tip to the Orlando Police Department generated interest in Munoz's flight. More arrests could be made, he said.
"I can tell you there were weapons and drugs but we're not getting into specifics right now," he said. "We're still following up. It is an ongoing matter."
Passengers were never in danger, said Christopher White, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration Agency in Washington.
"While we cannot discuss details of an ongoing criminal matter, no weapons were brought through the passenger security checkpoint and at no time were passengers in any danger," White said.
Munoz was a three-year employee of the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Comair, a subsidiary of Delta, company spokeswoman Kate Marx said. He has been suspended pending an investigation.
Munoz, who was not on duty at the time, was a customer service agent. His duties would include loading and unloading luggage on the ramp outside the airplane, but "he would not have performed those duties for this particular flight," Marx said.
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