Local News in Pennsylvania: A Man was being Upheld in an Airport without a Bail for carrying Explosives.

Marc Muffley, 40, of Lansford, confessed to putting explosives, fuses, and a lighter in a bag he checked for a trip to Florida. When he anticipated being arrested, he left the Lehigh Valley airport. The Transportation Security Administration was able to locate the device and prevent it from being placed on an airplane, and a defense lawyer suggested that Muffley only wanted to set off fireworks on a Florida beach.

U.S. Magistrate Pamela A. Carlos agreed to detain Muffley without bail, finding that he was a flight risk and a danger to the community. Prosecutors said the explosive powder was packed in the same checked bag with other items, increasing the risk of an explosion. Other items in the luggage were a container of butane, a lighter, a pipe with what seemed to be methamphetamine residue on it, a cordless drill, and two GFCI outlets that had been glued together with black tape. Muffley’s actions seriously risk the lives of airport workers and patrons, and if the explosive had not been intercepted, the flight’s passengers and aircraft.

Muffley is charged with possessing an explosive in an airport and attempting to place an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft. The materials, according to his defense attorney, did not qualify as “incendiary” and hence did not satisfy the second charge’s requirements. The allegations were upheld by Judge Carlos due to probable cause McDonald argued that no one has posited one conceivable theory on how the device could have gone off.

Muffley was arrested at his home after checking in for an Allegiant Air flight, and authorities found a three-inch “circular compound” containing flash powder and other materials used to make commercial-grade fireworks (AP, 2023).