The loonies come out on Friday the 13th...
Terror alert issued on Florida highway
Package destroyed on 'Alligator Alley'
September 13, 2002 Posted: 9:34 AM EDT (1334 GMT)
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Authorities closed a 20-mile stretch of "Alligator Alley," south Florida's primary cross-state connector, and detonated a package early Friday after stopping three suspects who they believe may have been plotting a terror attack in Miami.
A Collier County sheriff's deputy pulled over a car around 1 a.m. after it drove through a toll plaza without paying. The deputy realized that it matched a description of a car issued in an earlier alert, according to Collier County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Tina Osceola. A second car stopped at the scene and the deputy called for backup, Osceola said.
Authorities said the men did not consent to the search.
A bomb-sniffing dog responded to both cars, and the sheriff's office took the three suspects from the two cars into custody.
Bomb squad investigators saw wires sticking out of a package in one of the cars, and used a water cannon to blow it apart, an official said. The package turned out to be medical equipment.
Officials were looking over the two vehicles but have not yet turned up anything else. One official said, however, that the search was only about 25 percent completed. (Map)
Florida law enforcement officials issued an alert Thursday night after a Georgia woman said she overheard a conversation among three men in a Calhoun, Georgia, restaurant. Calhoun is about 70 miles northwest of Atlanta on I-75, which runs north-south until it reaches Naples.
She said the conversation indicated they were planning a September 13 terror attack on Miami, according to a report by Miami's WSVN-TV.
The men then left the restaurant and headed south on Interstate 75, the report said.
Osceola said the three suspects were in custody, but had not been charged.
Alligator Alley is a major cross-Florida highway that runs between Naples on the west to near Fort Lauderdale on the east.
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