FBI Says Grenades Could be in TN River

Chattanooga, Tenn. (WTVC-TV) - We've learned explosive new details in the case of a former Marine and Bradley County Sheriff's deputy.

Matthew Picket plans to plead guilty next week to smuggling weapons back from Iraq.

But that won't necessarily put an end to this case.

In part of the plea papers for Matthew Pickett it says he smuggled not just guns, but grenades into the country. The problem is, authorities have the guns, but the grenades have never been found

NewsChannel 9 has learned that the F-B-I believes there could be up to six grenades below the surface of the Tennessee River somewhere in our area.

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Agent Rick Lambert said, "They are not smoke grenades but they are explosive grenades, the type that you would ordinarily use in warfare."

Investigators got a tip saying Pickett may have thrown them in. Court papers show he sold one machine gun-- and kept the another in his Bradley County deputy's car. But the documents also mention smuggled hand grenades. And those are nowhere to be found.

Acting on that tip the F-B-I sent divers down into the water although Agent Rick Lambert won't tell us exactly where.

"We had a specific location that we were directed to we've searched," said Agent Lambert. "The visibility in the water is less than two feet you can't really see more than two feet in front of your face."

If those grenades are down there agents believe they are buried beneath the silt where they will likely remain. Lambert doesn't feel they pose any public danger-- but can't rule out a bizarre set of circumstances that might one day be dangerous.

"I only know that they are undetonated they are intact and believed to be live," he said.

We called Pickett's lawyer who declined to comment on this case and said Pickett won't be talking either.

Pickett is expected to plead guilty next Thursday to smuggling the weapons into the country. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.