An American arrested in Turks and Caicos on charges of ammunition possession has been granted bail.
Tyler Wenrich, a 31-year-old Virginia man, is expected to be released from custody Thursday after his bail is posted by family.
We spoke with Wenrich's father last week about his son's arrest.
"He is terrified. I try to give him hope and some strength and he's hanging in there," Michael Wenrich said at the time. "But, as you can imagine, his life, his wife, his child -- their lives and our lives have been overturned."
According to his father, Tyler Wenrich is a paramedic and was on a Royal Caribbean cruise for a bachelor party trip. The ship stopped in Grand Turk last week.
"He boarded the airplane, went to Florida, got through security and got through security on to the ship," Michael Wenrich said. "When he left the ship to explore the island with his friends and came back, you go through security, and that's where they found two rounds in the bottom corner or whatever of his backpack. And they immediately took him into custody."
Tyler Wenrich is the VP of operations for Emergency Services Solutions in Virginia. His boss is vouching for his character.
"We understand this is a very serious situation, but we also know that the guy that you have is a special type of human being who we're going to help in any way possible," said Blanton Marchese, CEO of Emergency Services Solutions Inc. "Tyler's done nothing but serve the community that we live in with honor."
Wenrich is one of several Americans who have been arrested for allegedly violating Turks and Caicos' strict laws barring possession of guns and ammunition.
The Transportation Safety Administration has admitted it failed to detect bullets in the luggage of American tourists who were later arrested on the Turks and Caicos Islands for possession of ammunition.
Brian Hagerich of Pennsylvania and Ryan Watson of Oklahoma have also been charged. All three are fathers and are facing possible mandatory minimum 12-year prison sentences after they say they accidently left ammunition in their bags from previous trips.
In a statement, TSA admits it missed the ammunition that was in Ryan Watson's bag when he boarded a plane in Oklahoma April 7.
"TSA takes its security mission very seriously. TSA can confirm that four rounds of ammunition were not detected in the traveler's bag during security screening at will Rogers World Airport," a spokesperson said. "TSA is here to protect our transportation security systems, and an oversight occurred that the agency is addressing internally."
NBC10 Boston asked the TSA if it was conducting security reviews at the airports in Pittsburgh and Richmond, where Hagerich and Wenrich went through security, respectively. The agency said it is only monitoring the situation involving one traveler that flew through Oklahoma City.
The attorney general and director of public prosecutions of Turks and Caicos issued a statement on Wednesday saying the island's firearm ordinance "requires the Supreme Court to impose a mandatory minimum sentence and fine for certain firearm offenses, except in circumstances where the court finds that there are exceptional circumstances."
The statement went on to add that there have been five separate cases within a two-year period where the Supreme Court on the islands have found exceptional circumstances. Four of the offenders were fined and one was given a custodial sentence below the mandatory minimum. Michael Grimm's eight-month sentence was below the mandatory minimum of 12 years in prison.
The director of public prosecutions said in a statement, "8 firearms and ammunitions prosecutions in total were done involving tourists from the United States, 3 of which are currently before the court with each of the defendants on bail."
We asked Royal Caribbean why the ammunition wasn't detected before Wenrich boarded the ship. The company said it would look into the situation, but we have not heard back.
More on the Turks and Caicos Islands ammunition arrests
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