Cargo Ops at Port of Miami Shut Down

[GottaCruz]

Truck was stopped at entrance to port. Inside truck were two Iraqi men and one Lebanese. They appeared suspicious so now waiting to hear . News conference will be on shortly.

[GottaCruz]

When truck was stopped, the driver was asked who else was on truck and he said nobody. Truck was searched and found the two other men. For the last four hours, truck has been in the process of being scanned .All three men are Americans, but 2 of of Iraqi descent and 1 is of Lebanese descent

[GottaCruz]

Driver of truck did not have required entrance pass to gain access. 2 other men were hiding in cab of truck. The truck is 40 feet long. It is now being scanned for bombs. Also, what alerted the port employee was that the contents of the truck did not match the manifesto of what was supposed to be in the truck. I just heard that cruise passengers have been boarding the ships all day without a problem. The 3 men are being detained by the FBI.

[GottaCruz]

Port is now under alert. Although men are being "detained" , and not arrested at this point, they are NOT free to move around. Hazmat squads now checking out truck too.

[GottaCruz]

News conference on now. Miscommunication between driver and port security guard. X-rays showed electrical auto parts, which was consistent to the trucks's manifest. Still investigating men since they didn't have required I.D. Still concern over why truck driver said he was alone in truck. Maybe a language difficulty caused miscommunication. Port is safe. Driver is 20, passengers 28 and 29. Driver was Iraqi. Successful conclusion . Men still being investigated at this time. Men are technically detained but really arrested due to seriousness of affair. All 3 men are legally in country.

[gymbrat33]

Thanks for the update, Cheryl! Scary, but they have to take precautions.

[GottaCruz]

Better safe than sorry. They did an amazing job and resolved in several hours what they said would have taken several days if the organizations hadn't worked so well together.

[JoeyandDavid]

they said the trunaround time in this investigation was outstanding... what used to take days now took hours

[DaCruzNut]

Luckily for cruise ship passengers, the cargo operations are at the furthest end of Doge island, past the passenger terminals, so passenger traffic wasn't disrupted...

[hazelson]

Great reporting job Cheryl - you could give Anderson Cooper a run for his money LOL.

Interesting story - to say the least. Think about what might have happened - that's scary.