Man charged with jumping fence, walking onto MSP runway

A 25-year-old man is charged with six misdemeanors for climbing a barbed wire fence and walking onto the runway at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport last week, during one of the busiest travel days leading up to the holiday weekend.

Airport security cameras show Roel Adame Blanco squeezing between secured gates, climbing the fence and breaching the restricted area around 11 p.m. on Dec. 21, according to charges filed Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court.

Blanco, of Minneapolis, was arrested and remains in custody. At his first court appearance Wednesday, a judge set his bail at $1,000 and ordered that Blanco stay away from the airport unless he has a plane ticket, according to court records.

Prosecutors have charged Blanco with trespassing, giving police a false name, committing runway incursion and several misdemeanor counts for being an unauthorized person in a prohibited airport area. The charges were first reported by Fox 9-TV.

Blanco had an active warrant for his arrest out of Anoka County stemming from a February 2020 theft charge. According to records, he was accused of shoplifting two speakers valued at $219 from Best Buy in Blaine. He pleaded guilty that April and received five years probation.

Records state that he later violated terms of probation and bailed out of jail four weeks ago on $100 cash bond. A warrant was issued Dec. 6 for Blanco when he failed to appear in court the previous day.

According to the charges filed in the airport incident:

Officers approached Blanco, who admitted to jumping the fence by Gates 123, 124 and 125, then walking across the airfield and runway. Blanco said he was not a ticketed passenger or airport employee and that he was trying to get to a gas station.

Upon his arrest, Blanco identified himself as Antonio Blanco Victoriano with a Jan. 1, 2023, birthdate. He had a Mexico ID card with his name on it, but said the card belonged to his cousin. Court records list a Minneapolis address for Blanco.

Officers ran his fingerprints to identify him as Blanco, which also surfaced the warrant.

In an interview at the airport's police operations center, Blanco said he got off the light-rail train at the Fort Snelling Station and saw "military" on a sign, which he said made him nervous.

He admitted to approaching two security gates and following employees through the first gate. At the second gate, he said, he saw a mounted security camera and barbed wire that he climbed over. Blanco admitted that he also saw a sign on the gate noting it was a restricted area.