Federal agents Monday arrested Manuel Benel Cuadrado at the Cyril E. King Airport, charging him with transporting firearms into the U.S. Virgin Islands in violation of federal law.
A four-page complaint and affidavit filed Monday in the District Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands outlines the case against Cuadrado. Louis Penn Jr., a special agent for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division in the Department of Homeland Security, swore to the document.
Penn’s statement lays out the following series of events.
On Monday, Cuadrado allegedly arrived at the Jet Blue terminal at the airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and checked in at the gates for a flight to St. Thomas, checking one item, later identified as a brown box.
Officers from Customs and Border Patrol and Homeland Security in San Juan allegedly searched the box and discovered three firearms, Penn said in his affidavit: a .45 caliber Glock 30 with one magazine, a .357 caliber Smith & Wesson 66-3, and a 9 millimeter Smith Wesson with one magazine.
The agents said they removed the guns from the box and replaced them with two fake firearms, then allowed the box to be loaded onto the JetBlue flight, which flew on to St. Thomas.
At 4 p.m. Cuadrado arrived at the St. Thomas airport on the JetBlue flight, and Homeland Security agents watched as he allegedly retrieved the same brown box from the baggage claim that he had previously checked at San Juan.
At that point the agents escorted Cuadrado to the secondary inspection area at the airport and read him his Miranda rights, which he subsequently waived, Penn said. Customs and Border Patrol officers asked if the box and the duffle bag he carried belonged to him, which he allegedly admitted. Officers searched the items and then allegedly removed the two fake guns that had been placed there earlier.
According to the affidavit, Cuadrado is not a registered federal firearms licensee and he failed to provide notice to JetBlue that his box contained firearms, as is required by federal law.
Since no firearms, including the type found in the box, are manufactured in Puerto Rico, the investigators concluded that the three firearms they seized from the box in Puerto Rico must have been shipped or transported illegally into that territory, Penn said.
Penn’s sworn statement suggests that sufficient probable cause exists to show the commission of a violation of federal laws against unlawful dealing in firearms, the interstate transfer of firearms and delivery of firearms by common carrier without notice.
Cuadrado was held without bail pending further proceedings.
