Man Nabbed Trying To Smuggle Bomb-Making Materials Into Naval Base

A man has been arrested after he allegedly tried to smuggle bomb-making materials in his pickup truck into a San Diego naval base on Tuesday, Feb. 15.

At around 9 a.m. on Tuesday, an unidentified driver reportedly approached the North Island Naval Air Station entrance in Coronado and was stopped by security officials at the request of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

When the security officers searched the suspicious vehicle, they noticed possible bomb-making materials inside the truck. However, the materials were not assembled into any kind of device, the Daily Beast reported.

Following the concerning discovery, the security officers stopped the traffic and closed the inbound gate on Third Street and the outbound gate at McCain Boulevard.

Meanwhile, the buildings that were nearest to the area were evacuated, and people in buildings a bit farther away were ordered to shelter-in-place. The security officers also closed the Commissary, Exchange, and Visitor Center.

Warnings were also issued for people to stay away from the main gate and Building 335. Meanwhile, entry to the naval base was only made available through the First Street gate and the Ocean Boulevard gate.

About five hours later, shortly after 2 p.m., the naval base officials posted a notice on Facebook saying that they have reopened the gates. They added that shelter-in-place orders had been lifted and that normal operation had resumed, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

However, even after reopening the gates, the commercial vehicle inspection lane and the ID lab in the Visitors Center still remained closed.

The driver has reportedly been identified to be a sailor. The man remained in custody as of Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 15. However, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service declined to share details on his identity or any charges that he would be facing.

In a similar but unrelated incident, a man was allegedly caught transporting a half-dozen Molotov cocktails and suspected bomb-making materials in his car on a northern San Diego County roadside on Jan. 17, 2022, NBC 7 San Diego reported.

At around 5:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 17, officers responded to the 1600 block of Ridge Road after they received complaints of an illegal camper and found Christopher Lee Fore, 33, sitting behind the wheel of his parked vehicle. The authorities subsequently searched Fore's car.

During a preliminary search of the vehicle, law enforcement allegedly found a metal military-style ammunition can containing two large plastic bags labeled "Ammonium Nitrate" and "Potassium Nitrate." Officers thought they were dealing with explosives and backed away from the car to a safe location and shut down traffic in the area.

Following this, the sheriff's bomb-arson detectives along with the help of FBI agents and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives officers,
conducted a thorough search of the vehicle and found six homemade bottle bombs along with gunpowder and a small amount of methamphetamine.