WICHITA, Kan. — Prosecutors argued Friday that charges against a man accused in a plot to blow up the Wichita airport should not be thrown out, even though the explosives used in a sting operation were fake.
In a court filing, prosecutors said it was important to determine whether Terry Loewen, a former avionics technician who was arrested in December 2013, was actually willing to detonate the bomb at Mid-Continent Airport.
He purportedly tried to bring a van filled with inert explosives onto the airport in a suicide bomb plot as part of a sting operation in which undercover FBI agents gave him the fake explosives.
Loewen has pleaded innocent to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to use an explosive device to damage property and attempting to give material support to al-Qaida.
Loewen’s attorneys contend that because the bomb would not explode, the weapon did not meet the legal definition of a “destructive device.” They asked the court to dismiss the related counts.
But the government countered that the fact that the bomb Loewen wired would not have exploded is irrelevant.
It cited other cases in which law enforcement would impersonate children to catch sex predators, rather than place real children in danger; or use false drugs or firearms rather than allow real versions to be potentially released into the community.
Loewen’s attorneys have also asked the court to suppress any evidence seized from his vehicle on the day of his arrest, because they say the search warrant wasn’t good for that day.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot has set March 31 for oral arguments over the legal disputes.