Rule #33: Claim explosive contraband is 'fireworks'

 
Thanks to Google Alerts, there's a bit of new info just in on the USF students-cum-traveling band of fireworks experimenters named Mohamed and Megahed. The pair were apprehended last month in South Carolina and the usual parties immediately blamed law enforcement's tendency to "profile".

Prosecutor Jay Hoffer said authorities found three pieces of piping cut into small sections in the trunk of a car Megahed was traveling in, each filled with a "potassium nitrate explosive mixture." Also found in the car were 20 feet (6 meters) of fuse, a box of .22 caliber bullets, a drill that could have been used to "perhaps insert a fuse" into the explosive devices, and a partially filled 5-gallon gasoline container, Hoffer said. A video found on a laptop in the car, which Mohamed has acknowledged he made, shows "how to turn a radio controlled car into a detonator that could be used for an explosive," Hoffer said. The men say the explosive materials were simply for homemade fireworks...

I don't know about you, but whenever I'm getting ready to shoot off fireworks near a sensitive military installation, I cut PVC pipe into small sections, fill those up with a potassium nitrate-based compound, and drill holes in them. Plus, I carry around a large gas canister to make sure my fireworks will ignite when I need them to. Oh, and bullets too, in order to add the cool "pop-pop-pop" sounds.

So I totally buy into their story.

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