Three people were arrested on Tuesday morning with several rifles and handguns, some loaded, after police stopped them near the Holland Tunnel in New Jersey, authorities said.
Two men in their 50s and one woman in her 20s were arrested after police pulled their vehicle over at the toll plaza for a cracked windshield around 7:40 a.m. ET (1140 GMT) and discovered the cache of weapons, according to a spokesman for the Port Authority Police Department, which patrols the tunnel.
The Holland Tunnel is a major crossing that connects New Jersey and Manhattan, although it was not immediately clear where the vehicle was headed.
NBC 4 New York reported that two senior law enforcement officials said the three suspects are “gun enthusiasts” and that there was no known threat.
A camouflage helmet with what appeared to be night-vision goggles was also taken from the vehicle, NBC said.
U.S. law enforcement, including New York City’s massive counterterrorism apparatus, has been on high alert since a gunman killed 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub on June 12 in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
New York has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws, including a ban on military-style assault weapons that on Monday survived a U.S. Supreme Court challenge.
It was not immediately clear if any of the weapons seized in Tuesday’s arrest fit that description.
The investigation is continuing, authorities said. {eoa}
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