NYPD car stop uncovers weapons, warnings, sparking investigation into possible terrorist threat

A car stop Wednesday in Queens sparked a terrorism investigation after officers found a gun, daggers, ammunition, a baton engraved with ominous warnings and a “V for Vendetta” mask in the driver's SUV , indicated police sources.

“You left me no choice,” one message read, according to sources.

“I’m sorry,” read another. A third message warned, “You will learn today,” while a fourth message, in Arabic, said, “God forgive me,” sources said.

Judd Sanson, 27, was arrested in his Ford Explorer at 1:25 a.m. after officers from New York's 110th Precinct Public Safety Team saw him driving with a covered license plate near 86th rue and boulevard Ditmars. in Elmhurst East.

“You couldn't even see the license plate, the cover was so dark,” New York Police Department Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said at a news conference Wednesday.

Details about a possible terrorist threat were scarce. Asked at the press conference about that angle, Maddrey simply said the matter was still under investigation.

Police say they recovered a Glock 9mm. a handgun, three knives, a dagger, eight loaded magazines and a “V for Vendetta” mask, a staple of international protests, from inside the vehicle.

The mask was originally popularized by the 1980s graphic novel and then by the 2005 film adaptation.

Sources said the suspect also had in his possession a bulletproof vest, handcuffs, NYPD uniform items, two axes, a stun gun and what was described as a weighted whip – as well as an extendable stick, or asp, on which the messages had been engraved. .

A New York City transit vest was also found, which Maddrey said had “no connection” to an apparently planned attack on the city's transit system or any other nefarious plot.

The suspect never worked for the city's transit system or for an agency contractor, according to an MTA spokesperson.

“An arrest of this magnitude, the amount of ammunition and NYPD paraphernalia in the car, was significant,” he said.

Sanson was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and possession of ammunition, police said.

He posted comments on social media and visited websites suggesting extremist ideology, according to police sources.

Sanson gave police his home address as an apartment in Jamaica.

The Explorer is registered to a 56-year-old man who appears to be a relative, sources said.

Officers stopped the car just a block from where Officers Richard Yarusso and Christopher Abreu were shot and killed June 3 by 19-year-old Bernardo Raul Castro Mata. The duo was treated at Elmhurst Hospital and released later that day.