MINNEAPOLIS -- Police call Joseph Harris Jones and his buddies trespassing hucksters trying to make a buck from the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis.

They arrested Jones and cited four others Wednesday night after catching the men inside a security perimeter. Jones has been trying to hawk a $650,000 piece of sonar equipment to aid the search for bodies, Minneapolis police Capt. Mike Martin said.

“We’ve had problems with people coming here trying to make money off this tragedy,” Martin said. “It’s pitiful that someone would do that.”

But an attorney for the men said no one was trying to sell anything. Attorney Marsh Halberg said Jones and the others have stellar credentials and are in Minneapolis trying to aid the recovery mission and collapse investigation. Two of those cited – John Kloske and Steven Untiedt -- are sonar experts who have provided underwater security for a Super Bowl and Republican National Convention. Kloske and Untiedt are with SRI International, a private research firm with an office at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"They're here for humanitarian purposes," Halberg said. "They were not trying to hawk anything. They were coming to help on their own nickle."

Halberg said the arrest and citations stem from a communication breakdown among the alphabet soup of agencies working the disaster site.

Jones, 46, is a retired Coast Guard captain. He was in Minneapolis on behalf of CodaOctopus, a New York-based firm specializing in underwater mapping and inspections, Halberg said. Jones, of Gales Ferry, Conn., remains jailed in Hennepin County on suspicion of trespassing, interference with a death scene and obstruction of legal process.

CodaOctopus, which is working with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop underwater inspection equipment for the U.S. Coast Guard, offered its services to the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, said Angus Lugsdin, a CodaOctopus vice president. Sheriff Rich Stanek invited the firm to send its sonar equipment to the scene, Lugsdin said. Jones and the others arrived to help pave the way for the equipment's arrival, Lugsdin said.

Martin detailed the case for reporters Thursday. Martin said Jones arrived uninvited one day at the bridge site, managed to talk his way into a secure police command post and offered to sell sonar equipment. The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the search for trapped victims, told him to go away, Martin said.

Martin said Jones and his colleagues returned Wednesday night and unlawfully penetrated the security perimeter. They had cameras and video recording equipment, Martin said.

Halberg said the only cameras the men carried were on their cell phones. He said the group had signed a log, were wearing temporary security passes and had been escorted into the area by a police officer.

One of those cited was Joseph C. Peters, of Lake Winola, Pa., president of MSGI Security Solutions. Peters is a former assistant deputy director in President George W. Bush’s drug police office and served in an anti-drug program during the Clinton Administration. He also is a former state prosecutor in Pennsylvania.

Martin said the case was one of two instances of profiteering at the recovery site. Police detained a second man Thursday morning they said has been trying to sell his expertise in construction rigging and demolition. The man, whose name has not been released, has been appearing as an expert on network shows, Martin said.

Before his arrest, the supposed expert was pressing officials to hire him. “We don’t know what his problem is,” Martin said. “We just know he’s our problem.”

Martin warned would-be profiteers to stay away from the collapse site.

“If you come here to try to sell your product and services and capitalize on the people here, I’ll make sure within every means possible you won’t have the credibility to sell Girl Scout cookies,” Martin said.

Martin called dealing with unwanted solicitors “a huge distraction.”

“The most important thing we’re trying to do now is recover the victims,” he said. “When we have to focus on this stuff it detracts from our ability to do our work.”

Police have established a wide perimeter around the collapse site on both sides of the Mississippi River and up and down the river for a considerable distance, marking the protected area with officers, cameras, motion detectors, fences and yellow police tape.

Before the latest two arrests, authorities had arrested 16 people on trespassing charges after they were caught breaching the perimeter.