Former Texas Tech Health Sciences Professor Dr. Thomas Butler caused havoc at Miami International Airport Thursday evening after arriving on a flight from the Middle East.
A metal canister inside his luggage resembling a pipe bomb prompted airport officials to evacuate four of the airport's six concourses, roadways and airport hotel.
Flashback to 2003 when Butler was arrested on charges of smuggling and improperly transporting plague samples - as well as theft, embezzlement and fraud. Butler originally reported 30 vials of bubonic plague samples missing, but it was believed he had destroyed the samples.
Butler was found guilty on 47 counts and received two years in federal prison.
He was released from a halfway house in 2006 and finished his supervised release in 2008.
Attorney Robert Webster who served as co-counsel for the federal prosecution says he believes Butler was compliant with his sentence and was under no restrictions.
"Dr. Butler was convicted in 2002 and sentenced in 2003 for a variety of federal offenses resulting in term of incarceration which he discharged to my understanding without incident. He also had a term of supervised release which he discharged in 2008 and a condition restitution of funds payable to Texas Tech Health Sciences Center which I understand he did fulfill. So, Dr. Butler was under no restrictions to travel, no restrictions of the criminal justice system that i am aware of."
Butler is listed on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Denied Person's list - prohibiting him in any transactions involving any commoditiy, software or technology exported to or from the United States
FBI Special Agent Michael Leverock says Butler's interview was at his own will.
"He's not being held, he's voluntarily being interviewed by our agents at this point," said Levenrock.
The airport was fully reopened at 4 a.m. Shortly before 12 p.m. Friday, 70-year-old Butler was released from questioning and was not charged. There are conflicting reports as to where Butler was headed.
