Federal authorities today arrested a man in Florida suspected of sending at least a dozen parcel bombs to high-profile critics of US President Donald Trump days ahead of congressional elections, officials said.
A federal law enforcement official named the suspect as Cesar Sayoc, born in 1962, and said more arrests could follow.
The man was taken into custody in the parking lot of an AutoZone store in Plantation, near Fort Lauderdale, where two witnesses told Reuters they heard a loud blast at the time of the arrest.
Local television stations showed investigators using a large blue tarp to cover a white van that was plastered with decals and stickers, before removing it on a truck.
A federal law enforcement official named the suspect as Cesar Sayoc, born in 1962, and said more arrests could follow.
The man was taken into custody in the parking lot of an AutoZone store in Plantation, near Fort Lauderdale, where two witnesses told Reuters they heard a loud blast at the time of the arrest.
Local television stations showed investigators using a large blue tarp to cover a white van that was plastered with decals and stickers, before removing it on a truck.
Police found two more suspicious packages today addressed to US Senator Cory Booker and James Clapper, the former U.S. director of national intelligence, as the hunt for the person who mailed bombs to prominent Democrats and critics of US President Donald Trump focused on Florida.
The 11th package was addressed to Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, and was discovered at a mail sorting facility in Florida, the FBI said. A 12th package was addressed to Clapper and was intercepted at a New York City post office, CNN reported.
"This is definitely domestic terrorism, no question about it in my mind," Clapper said in an interview. "This is not going to silence the administration’s critics."
The wave of parcel bombs has been denounced by authorities as terrorism and come as US congressional elections are less than two weeks. The results could alter the balance of power in Washington.
Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC today that the mail bombs were stoking fear across the county and that US leaders, including Trump, must reassure the public.
Elected officials and others need to say that this is not who we are as a country, Warner said. "That would be a heck of a lot stronger if that message also came from the White House."
No one has claimed responsibility for the bombs. In Florida, local police and canine units joined federal investigators yesterday to examine a sprawling US mail distribution centre at Opa-Locka, northwest of Miami.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Florida appeared to be the starting point for at least some of the bomb shipments.
"I am confident that this person or people will be brought to justice," Nielsen told Fox News Channel yesterday.
All the people targeted by the suspicious packages have often been maligned by right-wing critics. They included Democratic Party donor George Soros (photo), former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, and former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has said that at least five of the packages bore a return address from the Florida office of US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee.
There has been an outcry from Trump's critics, who charged that his inflammatory rhetoric against Democrats and the press has created a climate for politically motivated violence.
After first calling for "unity" and civil discourse on Wednesday, Trump lashed out again yesterday at the "hateful" media. His supporters accused Democrats of unfairly suggesting the president was to blame for the bomb scare.
"Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticise me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticise them they go wild and scream, “it’s just not presidential!” Trump said on Twitter at about 3.15am EST today.
Authorities believe the packages, which were intercepted before reaching their intended recipients, all went through the US Postal Service at some point, a source said. None detonated and no one has been hurt.
The devices were thought to have been fashioned from bomb-making designs widely available on the internet, a federal law enforcement source told Reuters.
Still, investigators are treating the devices as "live" explosives, not a hoax, said James O'Neill, the New York City police commissioner.
Investigators have declined to say whether the devices were built to be functional. Bomb experts and security analysts say that based on their rudimentary construction it appeared they were more likely designed to sow fear rather than to kill.
The parcels each consisted of a manila envelope with a bubble-wrap interior containing "potentially destructive devices," the FBI said. Each was affixed with a computer-printed address label and six U.S. "Forever" postage stamps, the agency said.
Two packages were sent both to US Representative Maxine Waters of California and Biden. Others who received the bombs were former Attorney General Eric Holder, former CIA director John Brennan, and actor Robert De Niro.
– Reuters
