Sept. 17, 2001 – Federal agency officials were close-mouthed Monday about two people detained for questioning Sunday on St. Thomas after security guards saw them taking pictures in a restricted area at the West Indian Co. dock in Havensight.
The WICO guards called U.S. Coast Guard officials around 11:30 a.m. Sunday after stopping the two people, according to Coast Guard Lt. John Reinert. Investigators from the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service responded to the scene, Reinert said Monday.
INS authorities took the lead in the investigation when they found evidence that the two people were not U.S. nationals, Reinert said. He declined to provide the two individuals' names or nationalities.
The WICO dock — like the Hovensa oil refinery and other facitlities in the territory — has been operating under heightened security since the terrorist attacks last week on the U.S. mainland, government officials have said.
Ivan Ortiz, the INS spokesman in San Juan, said he could neither confirm nor deny whether an investigation into the incident at the WICO dock was under way. It was not known whether the two people who were detained remained in custody Monday.
The INS is assisting the FBI in the search for people linked to the terrorist attacks. Ortiz said he could not comment on the ongoing nationwide investigation.
