A 29-year-old Youngstown, Ohio, man has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison after agents said he tried to smuggle three handguns and more than 200 rounds of ammunition through Pittsburgh International Airport inside a metal-lined briefcase hidden in his checked suitcase. Luis Rojas Cay was attempting to fly from Pittsburgh to San Juan, Puerto Rico, on April 26, 2024, when Transportation Security Administration agents discovered the weapons.
U.S. District Judge W. Scott Hardy handed down the sentence last Wednesday along with three years of supervised release, according to the Department of Justice, which noted the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney V. Joseph Sonson as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal initiative meant to pair law enforcement with local communities to curb gun violence. The sentence, part of a plea agreement, resolved charges Rojas Cay pleaded guilty to in March, as reported by TribLIVE: carrying a weapon aboard an aircraft and possessing a firearm as a felon.
Guns Wrapped in Foil, Hidden Inside a Metal-Lined Case
The three Glock handguns — one loaded 9 mm, one unloaded 9 mm and one unloaded .40-caliber — were wrapped in packages layered with foil-backed tape, then packed inside a sheet-metal-lined briefcase that Rojas Cay placed inside his suitcase, the outlet reported. The 204 rounds of ammunition were tucked in alongside them. In a court filing, Rojas Cay said he had been traveling to Puerto Rico to see his son.
A Kansas Warrant Was Already Trailing Him
Rojas Cay's airport stop came one day after ATF agents from the bureau's Youngstown office contacted Kansas court clerks seeking records tied to his 2021 criminal case there, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He had been convicted in Wyandotte County, Kansas, in 2022 on charges of robbery, attempted kidnapping and aggravated child endangerment, receiving 38 months in prison followed by 36 months of probation — a record that triggered a Kansas probation-violation warrant on May 1, 2024. Allegheny County Police initially arrested him at the airport on six state felony charges, three counts of carrying a firearm without a license and three counts of illegal possession, before federal prosecutors took over the case. He had booked a Spirit Airlines itinerary routing him from Pittsburgh to Orlando, Florida, before connecting on to San Juan.
Federal Law Treats Guns on Planes as a Serious Felony
Federal law under 49 U.S.C. § 46505 sets a statutory maximum of up to 10 years in federal prison for carrying or attempting to place a concealed firearm aboard a commercial aircraft, according to FindLaw. TSA regulations do permit passengers to travel with firearms, but only if the weapons are completely unloaded, locked inside a hard-sided container, packed in checked baggage and declared at the airline counter before departure, per the Transportation Security Administration.
Beyond criminal prosecution, TSA can also issue civil fines of up to $15,000 per violation against travelers caught with undeclared firearms at checkpoints or in checked luggage, the Post-Gazette has reported — a separate track of enforcement that runs alongside any criminal case.
Pittsburgh Airport's Recurring Gun Problem
Airport firearm interceptions have become a frequent occurrence at Pittsburgh International: TSA agents confiscated 42 guns at PIT checkpoints in 2024, a slight dip from a record 44 in 2023, but still enough to lead all Pennsylvania airports, ahead of Philadelphia International Airport's 40, per TribLIVE data. Statewide, TSA confiscated 97 guns across Pennsylvania checkpoints in 2024, with about 94% of intercepted firearms loaded, and nationwide the agency discovered 6,678 firearms at 277 airport checkpoints that year.
Most of those checkpoint stops involve travelers who simply forgot a loaded handgun in a carry-on bag, a pattern Hoodline has tracked repeatedly, including another Ohio traveler's checkpoint gun bust at PIT earlier this year. Rojas Cay's case stood apart from those routine mishaps in its complexity, given the layered concealment methods and his status as a convicted felon already wanted on a Kansas warrant at the time he tried to board his flight.
