Men found hiding in cargo truck at airport had no "ill intent"
Six men found hiding inside a truck parked at Delta Air Lines' cargo facility near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport were in the country illegally but had no plans to do harm, according to federal authorities.
Jon Allen with the Transportation Security Administration said the men were discovered Tuesday night by agents using an X-ray machine to inspect trucks in a routine counter-terrorism sweep around Hartsfield-Jackson.
Barbara Gonzalez with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said agents from ICE, TSA, Immigration and Customs and Border Patrol were were conducting "routine operations near the Atlanta Hartsfield International airport to identify possible violations" when the men were discovered.
" During last night’s operation...illegal aliens were encountered. None of those encountered were in secure areas of the airport, nor did they have access to those areas," Gonzalez said. "Our investigation has revealed that none of these individuals had any ill intent against the United States.”
Five of the men were from Mexico and one was from El Salvador, Gonzalez said. Initially authorities had said seven men were found, and that they would be deported
"We are not processing them for removal," Gonzalez said. "This is an on-going investigation.
Tuesday was the second night of a “visible intermodal prevention and response” operation that focused on trucks carry cargo to be loaded on planes, according to Allen with TSA.
There was no specific threat that prompted the operation.
“We conduct thousands of these operations across the country in conjunction with other federal, state and local agencies,” Allen told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday.
Bomb-sniffing dogs, a radioactive detector and an X-ray device were brought in but agents found no explosives.
No charges were brought against the contractor who owned the truck in which the men were hiding. But officials said they were investigating and that decision would be based on the findings.
