Man pleads guilty to threats to blow up airplanes

Bill Gang

Thursday, Feb. 4, 1999 | 11:18 a.m.

A man who was miffed by the noise from planes flying over his home to land at a new McCarran International Airport runway has pleaded guilty to federal charges he threatened to blow up the control tower unless the aircraft were diverted.

Joseph Patrick Fuentes pleaded guilty Tuesday to sending threatening letters to McCarran officials between Oct. 3 and 7, 1997. The plea could put him in prison for up to 10 years when he is sentenced on May 10, according to U.S. Attorney Kathryn Landreth.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Connell said it was determined Fuentes never had the ability to carry out his threats. "But we had to be concerned about somebody who would send such letters," he said.

Fuentes sent five letters threatening to blow up arriving aircraft and the control tower if the noise level wasn't reduced around Sunset Road and Mountain Vista Street.

Fuentes had claimed he worked for a company that had imploded casinos in Las Vegas, but in reality he was a hotel banquet manager.

Four of the letters were typed on a word processor and one used letters cut from magazines and pasted to a piece of paper, Landreth said.