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A former teacher at a charter high school and his twin brother were arrested Thursday on federal bomb-making charges, stockpiling more than 32 pounds of ingredients for explosives in a closet in their apartment in the Bronx, New York City, law enforcement officials said.
The teacher paid high school students $50 (€39) an hour to break apart fireworks to extract the explosive powder, authorities said. Investigators also found diary writings referring to an “Operation Flash” and a purple index card that read, “Under the full moon the small ones will know terror,” according to officials and a criminal complaint filed in US district court in Manhattan.
The teacher, Christian Toro, and his brother, Tyler Toro, both 27, appeared in federal court in Manhattan Thursday afternoon and were ordered held in custody. Law enforcement officials "likely saved many, many lives," in making the arrests, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at an 8pm news conference at police headquarters. Officials at the news conference, however, did not provide any details about a possible motive, a target or any plans to explode a device.
Mr de Blasio said investigators believed there were no other people involved, adding: “There is no additional, imminent threat directed at New York City at this time.”
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The investigation that ultimately led to the Toro brothers began December 4th, when a bomb threat was called into the Harlem charter school where Christian Toro worked, according to the complaint and John J Miller, the deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, who spoke at the news conference with Mr de Blasio.
A 15-year-old student was arrested and charged with making the threatening call. A spokesman for the school, Democracy Prep High School, said Christian Toro resigned January 9th. Three days later, his brother returned to the school a laptop computer that the school had given Christian Toro, Mr Miller said.
“After he resigned, Democracy Prep did a routine review of his laptop and was deeply disturbed by suspicious content,” said Jeffrey W Schneider, a spokesman for Democracy Prep. A technician at the charter school examined Christian Toro’s laptop, and found on its hard drive a copy of a book that contained instructions for making explosives, the complaint said.
The school alerted law enforcement officials. On January 31st, the police arrested Christian Toro and charged him with raping a victim younger than 17. A law enforcement official said the alleged victim was a student at the school where he worked. “That was something that developed as a result of the investigation of the bomb scare to the school,” according to Mr Miller. Christian Toro was released on bail two days later, according to city records.
Explosives book
On February 8th, the FBI and police officers interviewed the Toro brothers in their apartment, and Christian Toro told agents he had come across the explosives book while doing research about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and had not meant to download it onto his computer, according to the complaint. He said he had never built a bomb, the complaint said.
Six days later, on Valentine’s Day, law enforcement agents interviewed students at the charter school, who told them that at least two students had visited the Toros’ apartment to break down the fireworks, storing the powder in containers, the complaint said. It said that the students appeared to have gone to the apartment between October and early January.
On Thursday morning, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at the brothers’ apartment, where they lived with a female relative. The complaint said that the agents found bomb-making materials in a closet, including a box containing about 20 pounds of iron oxide, 5 pounds of aluminum powder, 5 pounds of potassium nitrate, all materials that can be used to build explosives.
It also contained about 2 pounds of confectioners sugar, which the complaint said can be used as fuel in an explosive. They also found firecrackers and other explosive materials and a bag of metal balls that could have been used as shrapnel in a bomb.
Mr Miller said investigators also found “simulated weapons” at the apartment. The complaint said that on a kitchen table the agents found a diary, which contained Tyler Toro’s name, along with contact information. The diary contained handwriting that said, among other things, “We are twin Toros strike us now, we will return with nano thermite.”
It also said, “If you’re registered as a sex offender, things will be difficult. But I am here 100 per cent, living, buying weapons, whatever we need.”
“We don’t know at this point in the investigation, other than the criminal charges related to the explosives, the full breadth of what these materials mean,” Mr Miller said, referring to the writings. A law enforcement official could not say whether the two were affiliated with, or influenced by, an international organisation. –New York Times