Sudanese in London airport scare had dumdum bullets, court told

LONDON, April 14 (AFP) — A Sudanese man sparked a security alert at London’s Heathrow airport earlier this year when he was found with banned dumdum bullets in his jacket pocket, a British court heard Wednesday.

Wassila Alwasila, 45, who arrived in Britain after getting through stringent checks at Washington’s Dulles airport, was arrested after five live rounds were spotted on a scanner at Heathrow on January 14, the jury in his trial was told.

Prosecutor Louise Marshall told Southwark Crown Court in London that Alwasila’s first reaction was to insist: “They are only bullets.”

But later, when interviewed, he denied knowing the rounds had been in his jacket, Marshall said.

The Sudanese national also claimed that he used to be a security worker at Dulles airport, and told British authorities that his brother had given him the jacket he was wearing before he left because he was cold.

Alwasila denies three charges of possessing prohibited ammunition, of not having a firearms certificate, and of having bullets without lawful authority or reasonable excuse during a Virgin Atlantic flight from the United States.

Police said at the time of his arrest that he had been in transit through Heathrow for a flight to the Gulf state of Dubai.

Marshall told the London court: “There were five (bullets) altogether and whilst three of them were pretty regular bullets, two of them had been adapted by boring a small hole in the top. They are known as dumdums.

“When bullets adapted in that way make an impact … any hole it makes is greater than if it were unadapted.”

The ammunition incident called into question the level of security at Dulles, one of the biggest US airports, at a time when both the US and Britain were at a heightened level of alert against a feared repeat of the September 11 terrorist attacks of 2001.

Alwasila’s trial was adjourned until Thursday.