Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks during a news conference about security for NFL's Super Bowl 58 football game, in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Nevada’s Las Vegas As law enforcement pursued and captured an individual who scaled a prominent landmark on the Las Vegas Strip, local, federal, and NFL representatives spoke with the media on Wednesday to delineate strengthened security protocols and proclaim the Super Bowl as a “no drone zone.”
Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, together with representatives from the league, FBI, and Secret Service stated that there haven’t been any “specific or credible” threats to Sunday’s championship game at Allegiant Stadium. However, they claimed to be searching for them.
Mayorkas cut short a question about it during his first public appearance since the U.S. House of Representatives failed in a vote to impeach him on Tuesday. He also denied the accusations that prompted Republicans in Congress to want to remove him from the Biden Administration cabinet as “baseless.” These include allegations that Mayorkas lied to Congress when he said the border was safe and that he hasn’t appropriately enforced immigration rules to secure the border between the United States and Mexico.
Mayorkas stated, “I’m focused on the work, which is what brought me to Las Vegas today.”
The Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs were playing for the AFC championship on January 28 when the game was stopped for seven minutes. The Secretary of Homeland Security explained why. He added that over Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium, an unmanned drone aircraft had been spotted. Authorities subsequently stated that they tracked the plane and detained a man from Pennsylvania on suspicion of felonies.
“On Wednesday, NFL Chief Security Officer Cathy Lanier asked the media to please leave their weapons of any kind at home, along with drones, umbrellas, and selfie sticks.” The Super Bowl is a drone-free zone.
There will be 750 federal law enforcement officers in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl and associated festivities, according to U.S. Secret Service agent in charge Karon Ransom. She described the endeavour as a “whole of.
The FBI’s special agent in charge of the Las Vegas office, Spencer Evans, stated that his organisation was “monitoring and sharing” “every scrap of information that indicates a potential threat” from “criminal actors or a hostile nation-state” with other agencies and “appropriate private-sector partners.”
Evans stated, “This includes threat intelligence obtained from our U.S. intelligence community, our own databases, and social media or open source materials.”
In addition to repeating his call for witnesses to come forward, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill mentioned that Las Vegas has recently played host to a number of high-profile events, including the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix in November, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooting in December, and the New Year’s Eve fireworks that drew hundreds of thousands of people.
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill issued a familiar call for people who see something to say something and noted that Las Vegas has hosted a series of recent headline-grabbing events: the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix in November; a University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooting in December; New Year’s Eve fireworks that drew hundreds of thousands of revelers to the Las Vegas Strip.
The head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, McMahill, also solemnly mentioned the lessons to be learned from the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States, which occurred in October 2017 when a gunman opened fire from the windows of a high-rise casino hotel, killing 58 people at a 20,000-person outdoor concert on the Strip. Wounds sustained that evening have subsequently been linked to a number of further deaths.
For the Super Bowl, at least 65,000 people are anticipated at Allegiant Stadium, while tourism officials in Las Vegas predict that over 330,000 people will stay in hotels and explore the surrounding area.
“Report anything suspicious,” McMahill advised. “Let us investigate whether the threat is genuine.”
