Guns, drugs, ammo: What’s being confiscated at Las Vegas airport

Las Vegas police confiscate roughly 80 items a month attempting to make it through Harry Reid International Airport.

Guns, drugs, counterfeit cash and ammunition are among the items taken by officers stationed at the airport.

“You don’t want to get in a situation where you’re having to get rid of something that’s a prohibited item,” Harry Reid spokesperson Joe Rajchel said. “Plan ahead, look and make sure you know what can and can’t be transported, and it will save a lot of time as people travel.”

A list, and a search function for what is and is not allowed at the airport, can be found on the TSA website, under “What Can I Bring?”

Rajchel said there are 13 amnesty boxes scattered between the airport and the rental car companies for travelers to drop any illegal items, and most of the things disposed of are marijuana. The boxes are taken to a company that works with the Metropolitan Police Department to properly dispose of the items.

Metro Officer Robert Wicks said officers use their discretion when deciding whether to arrest someone traveling with contraband.

Often, police give locals the option to return home with the item if they’re local, or let Metro store it in their evidence vault. Tourists usually face confiscation, unless they can someone can pick up the item from the airport for them.

“They will confiscate it, because it can’t go through the airport, but we don’t arrest because its not illegal in the state of Nevada,” Wicks said, referencing marijuana and legally-owned guns. “A lot of times, we feel that person shouldn’t be punished when they did something legal.”

Wicks referenced marijuana and guns specifically as items Metro will offer to store or let a Las Vegas resident leave the airport and take home.

Data provided by Metro showed officers also took items that were not illegal to travel with, but were tagged under the same event number as an illegal item. A check payable to Metro for $40,000 was confiscated with a “pipe with residue,” officers noted.

It was not clear if that check was cashed.

The data showed the department’s confiscated items list included cocaine, meth, a rifle, an axe and a stun gun. In the first half of 2023, nine knives, 19 guns and $16,000 in cash were among more than 500 items confiscated at the security checkpoint.

In February, Jarione Turner was traveling back to Florida when police said they found marijuana in his suitcases. Turner told police he paid $15,000 for 38 pounds of marijuana, and he planned to resell it in Florida, according to a Metro arrest report.

Officers also took his suitcases and clothes, according to the confiscation data.

Turner was charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance and one count of attempting to sell or transport a controlled substance.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.