RMAF Confirms US Agents Nabbed Major Over Gun Smuggling Bid
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- Published on Sunday, 20 April 2014 20:32
An RMAF major was arrested by US officials at the San Angelo Airport earlier this week for trying to smuggle a pistol onto a flight to Dallas. File pic of the Royal Malaysian Air Force base in Butterworth./Pic:MMKUALA LUMPUR: A major with the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) was arrested earlier this week in San Angelo, Texas in the United States for attempting to smuggle a pistol he had bought from a gun show back to Malaysia.
An RMAF official confirmed in a statement today that Major Mohd Faiz Abdul Jalil had been detained by US officials at San Angelo Airport for trying to smuggle the PT-22 Taurus pistol onto a flight to Dallas, according to a report by Astro Awani.
According to the statement he is now under arrest and will be brought before a US court for charges tomorrow.
Major Mohd Faiz had been in Texas on a diplomatic visa while attending military training at Goodfellow Air Force base in San Angelo. He told US officials he had bought the pistol at a gun show.
On April 16, he had been scheduled to fly from Mathis Field Airport in San Angelo, with a connecting flight in Dallas, and then from Dallas to Kuala Lumpur, according to a report by local news site bigcountryhomepage.com.
According to the report, a US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent found the gun after his suspicions were aroused following an X-ray scan of Major Mohd Faiz’s baggage.
On opening a box inside the RMAF man’s bag, the TSA agent found a round ice cooler, similar to the ones found in hotel rooms, which contained a plastic hand weight. Within the hand weight was concealed the grip/receiver portion of a .22 calibre Taurus PT-22 pistol, bigcountryhomepage.com reported.
The weight also contained a magazine containing eight .22 calibre bullets.
According to the report, the agent found a corkscrew and can opener taped together, and the pistol’s barrel was held between them.
The remaining part of the pistol, the metal slide, was located within the wristband of a metal wrist watch housed inside a metal box contained in the suitcase.
San Angelo police officers and TSA agents subsequently escorted Major Mohd Faiz off the aircraft.
The RMAF major told the agents he had hidden the weapon so the Malaysian government would not find it when he arrived back in Kuala Lumpur.
According to the report, Homeland Security agents interviewed him and found he had been in the United States legally since January 5 on a Diplomatic Visa for the purposes of military training at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo.
The RMAF man bought the pistol while attending a gun show in Sweetwater, Texas, with two other students from the Air Force base.
He told authorities two other vendors refused to sell him a gun since he was not a US citizen, but a third vendor did agree to sell him the weapon for US$200, and the RMAF major said the vendor did not ask him to fill out any paper work.
Major Mohd Faiz was transferred to Lubbock, Texas on Friday and held in federal custody for prosecution. If convicted, he faces 10 years in jail.
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