Mark Vicars after his arrest
Around 7:40 Thursday morning, police pulled over a 2014 Dodge Durango on the Jericho Turnpike in Syosset, New York, a sleepy hamlet in Long Island's Nassau County. The car was being driven by Mark Vicars, 49, a man who lives in a gated community called The Knolls. Nassau County cops—in conjunction with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force—had apparently been conducting surveillance of Vicars after receiving a tip about him. But when pulled over, Vicars flashed emergency lights and showed a federal air marshal ID, which turned out to be phony, as a local ABC affiliate reports.Also in the car: a loaded .380 pistol, a gravity knife, a loaded assault rifle, body armor, a tactical vest, az high-capacity magazines each containing 30 rounds of ammo, the latest terrifying stash of weaponry unearthed by law enforcement in America.A search of Vicars' Syosset home turned up more weaponry—five handguns of various calibers and approximately 8,300 rounds of ammunition.At a Friday news conference, federal officials said there is no threat of terrorism in this case, which is being headed up by the Nassau County Police Department. Vicars—who, authorities say, even had his wife convinced he was a federal marshal—had no permits for any of the guns found in his home or car. He was charged with multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument, and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday.Follow Brian McManus on Twitter.
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