PHOENIX -- Authorities arrested a woman who allegedly tried to take a fake bomb onto a plane at Sky Harbor International Airport.
At approximately 10:30 a.m. Friday, Luwiza Laku Daman, 51, began walking through the security gate at Terminal 3 and placed her carry-on bag onto the X-ray machine.
A Transportation Security Administration employee noticed an item that looked like an improvised explosive device inside the bag, according to Sgt. Steve Martos with the Phoenix Police Department.
Officials shut down the checkpoint area and the bomb squad and Hazmat personnel were called to the scene.
Upon closer inspection, it appeared that the item consisted of a paste-like substance in a plastic container with a cell phone taped to the top of it.
Bomb squad officers determined it was not an explosive device.
"We're approaching the 10-year anniversary of 9/11," Martos said. "We are certainly cognizant of that date and our awareness is a little more heightened because of that and so we're taking this seriously."
Martos said Daman is a refugee in the United States and not from the Phoenix area.
Daman told Homeland Security detectives that she had obtained the item from a friend. Daman said Shullu Gorado had asked her to take the item on the plane and give it to another individual in Des Moines, Iowa, which was her destination.
Officers arrested Gorado Friday evening at an apartment complex near 19th Avenue and Camelback Road.
Gorado told police that he obtained the object from another person and admitted giving it to Daman to take on the plane with her.
Gorado and Daman are each facing one count of knowingly giving a false impression.
Police are going to have the substance tested to find out exactly what it was. Officials are still investigating the hoax device's origin, purpose and destination.
According to court paperwork, Daman and Gorado might have been testing airport security protocol.
Source: http://www.azfamily.com
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