League, FBI and Secret Service officials and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there have not been any ”specific or credible” threats to Sunday’s championship game at Allegiant Stadium. But they said they were looking for them.
Mayorkas, in his first public appearance since the U.S. House of Representatives failed in a vote on Tuesday to impeach him, cut short a question about that and dismissed as ”baseless” the allegations that led Republicans in Congress to try to force him from the Biden Administration cabinet. They include claims that Mayorkas hasn’t properly enforced immigration laws to secure the U.S. border with Mexico and accusations that he lied in telling Congress that the border is secure.
”I’m focused on the work,” Mayorkas said, ”that’s what brings me to Las Vegas today.”
The Homeland secretary shared the reason for a seven-minute timeout that paused the AFC championship game between the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs on Jan 28. He said an unmanned drone aircraft had been detected over Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium. Authorities later reported they followed the aircraft and arrested a Pennsylvania man on felony charges.
”Please leave your drones, umbrellas, selfie sticks and weapons of any kind at home,” NFL Chief Security Officer Cathy Lanier told the media on Wednesday. ”Super Bowl is a no-drone zone.”
Karon Ransom, U.S. Secret Service agent in charge in Las Vegas, put the number of federal law enforcement agents in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl and related events at 750. She termed the effort a ”whole of government approach.”
