Major airlines at the Cyril E. Airport in St. Thomas. Photo Credit: V.I. CONSORTIUM
ST. THOMAS — A man is now facing felony charges in District court after Customs & Border Protection officers found parts of firearms in his luggage.
According to court documents, on Monday, Randy Robbins flew in to the Cyril E. King Airport from a Spirit Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. CBP officers inspected a purple checked bag belonging to Robbins as it came off the flight, and noticed what they believed to be the silhouette of a firearm. The bag was then placed on the baggage carousel with the rest of the luggage, while officers waited for Robbins to collect his belongings.
Once he retrieved the bag and exited the baggage claim area, officers intercepted Robbins, confirmed his identity, and escorted him to a secondary screening area for further inspection. There, Robbins reportedly declined to fill out a customs declaration form, only saying to officers that the bag was his and that he packed it himself.
A physical search of the bag yielded a black vacuum-sealed bag inside of a box purportedly containing a ring light. The bag contained the lower receivers of two firearms, and one Glock 13-round .45 caliber magazine. Checks of the serial numbers on the firearms returned negative results for being stolen.
In a statement, Robbins reportedly told police that he had come to visit family and transact some business. The firearms, he said, were part of a project that he was working on, and he intended to rebuild them and possibly sell them. Because they were not whole, functional guns, Robbins said he did not think that he had to declare them. He is not a dealer and does not have the requisite license, he reportedly admitted. Officials also found three prior felony convictions on his record.
He was then arrested and charged with failure to provide written notice of a firearm to a common carrier, and failure to report a firearm. Robbins first appeared before United States Magistrate Alan Teague on November 19.
Prosecutors filed a motion seeking to keep Robbins detained pending trial, based on the seriousness of the alleged offenses and his prior criminal history including a recent conviction, for which he was sentenced to just over 2 years of unsupervised release. Ultimately, however, Judge Teague instead ordered that he be released ahead of trial on an unsecured bond of $10,000. Robbins will be monitored by GPS and abide by a 6pm to 8 am curfew until Saturday, when he will fly back to Miami.
