Two Detroit men who flew from O’Hare airport in Chicago to Amsterdam were arrested and charged in the Netherlands with “preparation of a terrorist attack,” U.S. law enforcement officials told ABC News. The men were on a flight that originated at O’Hare International Airport and were arrested without incident upon landing in Amsterdam, Chicago FBI spokesman Ross Rice told the Chicago Sun-Times.

 

The men were carrying “mock bombs” in their luggage, officials told ABC. U.S. officials found a cell phone taped to a Pepto Bismol bottle and a knife and boxcutter in checked luggage connected with the men, the report said. Dutch authorities have said the investigation is ongoing.

 

The arrests were made “at the request of American authorities,” a spokesman for the Dutch public prosecutor, Ernst Koelman, told ABC. The law enforcement official said one man was questioned as he went through security in Birmingham, Ala., on his way to Chicago. He told the Transportation Security Administration authorities he was carrying a lot of cash, the official said. Screeners found $7,000 on him, but he was not breaking any law by carrying that much money.

 

The other man was supposed to fly from Chicago to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, and then on to Amsterdam, the report said. But when he got to Chicago, he changed his travel plans to take a direct flight from Chicago to Amsterdam. Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said once officials found suspicious items in luggage associated with two passengers on the flight, they notified the Dutch authorities.