Second LAX employee in custody for dry ice bombs

USATODAY

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police arrested a second airport employee Friday for an alleged role in setting off ice bombs at the Los Angeles International Airport.

Miguel Angel Iniguez, 41, of Inglewood was arrested while working at the airport and booked on suspicion of possession a destructive device near an aircraft, Los Angeles police said. Iniguez is being held on $500,000 bail.

Iniguez was a supervisor for Servisair and responsible for 28-year-old Dicarlo Bennett, who was arrested Tuesday night and charged Thursday with two counts of possessing a destructive device in a public place. He pleaded not guilty.

No one was hurt when a plastic bottle packed with dry ice exploded Sunday in an employee bathroom and another blew up on the airport's tarmac. An employee found a third plastic bottle expanding Monday night on the tarmac near where the other exploded.

Bennett was riding in a van with several people, including a supervisor, when he decided to make the dry ice bombs in plastic bottles Sunday night, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press. Those in the van were aware of the dry ice, though no one else was initially arrested, according to the official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Police said Dicarlo planted the three devices out of personal curiosity, police said Wednesday.

Servisair did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Building dry ice bombs is a felony, Los Angeles police officials said.

A man was killed in 1992 while cleaning a liquor store in Los Angeles when a kid created a dry ice bomb with a glass bottle and the man picked it up. Glass shards slit his throat and he bled to death.