A former federal firearms instructor who worked at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia is warning the strange arrest of two Jordanian nationals in a box truck at the base may have been a “dry run” to test security outside the facility ahead of a terror attack.
The same truck, had it been loaded with explosives, could have been a devastating weapon if it made it close enough to an occupied building, he warned.
“Driving the box truck was a dry run for driving a box truck that was not going to be empty the second time,” said Dave Katz, a former DEA agent and the CEO and founder of Global Security Group. “Can I prove that? No. But it’s like the 9/11 hijackers trying to get aboard planes with box cutters on other occasions prior to actually perpetrating the act.”
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Vehicles drive through the main gate at Marine Corps Base Quantico in July 2004. (Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images)
According to the report from the federal government’s 9/11 Commission, conspirators took cross-country test flights, smuggling box cutters onto planes before determining “the best time to storm the cockpit.”
“It’s their equivalent of a feasibility study,” Katz said. “What would happen if we get off the highway in a box truck and try to get into the base?”
The two men had no weapons, no prior criminal records, and authorities have released no evidence that they had a terror-related motive. However, Katz said he doubts their cover story that they were contracted drivers for Amazon or that they could have made a wrong turn.
Amazon said it was looking into the matter but that it did not believe the duo were delivering anything on the company’s behalf.
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Two men, both from Jordan, arrived at the base in a box truck on May 3, allegedly posing as delivery drivers and attempting to get onto the base, according to authorities.
Military police stopped them at the gate, but the driver allegedly ignored them and tried to move into the compound.
“Due to the swift response and execution of their duties, the officers were able to deploy the vehicle denial barriers, prevent any further access to Marine Corps Base Quantico and detain the individuals who were eventually turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody,” Capt. Michael Curtis said in a statement.
JORDANIAN WHO TRIED TO BREACH MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO WAS IN US ILLEGALLY, SOURCES SAY
Drug Enforcement Administration agents simulate a raid in their Tactical Training Facility, part of the new National Clandestine Laboratory Training and Research Facility Dec. 5, 2008, at the DEA Training Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Both the DEA and FBI have training facilities at the base, where two Jordanians were arrested earlier this month after posing as delivery drivers in a failed bid to get inside. (TIM SLOAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Patrick Lechleitner told Fox News Digital previously that the two were facing removal proceedings. However, they have not been publicly identified.
Neither ICE nor the FBI immediately responded to requests for comment.
Fox News’ Griff Jenkins reported Thursday that at least one of the suspects entered the U.S. illegally through San Diego in April after crossing the border from Mexico. Critics of the Biden administration have warned repeatedly that the country’s open southern border puts Americans at risk, as enemies could sneak it among the migrants.
The other suspect overstayed his student visa.
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“A student overstay somehow gets in contact with someone illegally crossing into the U.S. on the other side of the country. Both of them wind up in that truck,” Katz said. “There is no possible explanation for what happened other than a sinister one.”
Quantico is a Marine Corps base that also houses training facilities and a lab for the FBI and DEA, which could be potential terror targets, Katz said.
The main gate of the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, on March 22, 2013. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Can anyone come up with any reasonable explanation as to why two illegal aliens from Jordan would be driving a box truck in a sensitive area, other than to try to make a dry run for a future incident?” Katz said. “If you can’t provide an explanation for that, it’s terror related.”
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
