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Tag: explosive

  • Ex-Navy SEAL planned to fire explosives at police at San Diego ‘No Kings’ rally

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    A former Navy SEAL with neo-Nazi beliefs faces up to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of transporting fireworks across state lines with the intent to injure law enforcement at a “No Kings” protest in San Diego, authorities said.

    FBI agents found messages on Gregory Vandenberg’s phone indicating he was upset with President Trump because he believed the U.S. government is controlled by Israel and the Jewish people, according to the Department of Justice.

    Vandenberg, 49, was planning on traveling from El Paso to San Diego to unleash harmful fireworks at a June 14 protest, prosecutors said.

    Inside his car agents found T-shirts with a neo-Nazi symbol printed on them, a flag for the militant group the Caucasian Front, an Al Qaeda flag and a Latin message saying “Judea must be destroyed,” among other paraphernalia displaying anti-Israel and extremist beliefs, prosecutors said.

    FBI agents said they found clothing in Gregory Vandenberg’s vehicle with anti-Israel slogans and neo-Nazi symbols.

    (Office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico)

    On June 12, Vandenberg stopped at a travel center near Lordsburg, N.M., and purchased six large mortar fireworks as well as 72 M-150 firecrackers, which are designed to sound like gunfire. He repeatedly expressed his desire to use the fireworks to harm law enforcement at upcoming protests in California and urged the store clerk to join him, prosecutors said.

    Vandenberg, who had no stable employment and lived in his car, told the clerk he had significant knowledge of explosives and prior special operations forces experience. He said he was not interested in the color or display of the fireworks, only in their explosive impact and ability to harm others. He even talked about the possibility of increasing their explosive impact by taping fireworks together.

    He wore a T-shirt with the word “Amalek” on the front, which he said he designed specifically to mean “destroyer of Jews.” In the Torah, Amalek refers to descendants of Esau who are known as the Israelites’ sworn enemy. His home screen on his phone displayed a picture of the Taliban flag, prosecutors said.

    A hat with the calligraphy of the Al Qaeda flag was among evidence.

    A hat with the calligraphy of the Al Qaeda flag was among evidence.

    (Office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico)

    He declined to provide his ID and then became paranoid, asking whether the store intended to track him and falsely saying that he was not from America, authorities said. Employees, shaken by the encounter, wrote down his license plate and contacted the police.

    Federal agents tracked Vandenberg to Tucson, Ariz., where he was arrested on June 13 while sleeping in his car at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. He told agents he was traveling for work and visiting friends in Phoenix, despite being unemployed, prosecutors said.

    After a five-day jury trial and around three hours of deliberation, a jury convicted him of transportation of explosives with intent to kill, injure or intimidate and attempted transportation of prohibited fireworks into California. He remains in custody awaiting sentencing.

    Acting U.S. Atty. Ryan Ellison said in a statement that the verdict sends a message that attempts to use violence to express one’s political beliefs will be met with federal consequences.

    “People in this country are free to hold their own beliefs and to express them peacefully,” Ellison said. “What they are not free to do is use explosives to threaten or terrorize others. Vandenberg intended to turn explosives into a tool of intimidation.”

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    Clara Harter

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  • Bomb Squad Called To State Park On Oregon Coast – KXL

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    Oregon State Parks notified the Oregon State Police of a suspicious backpack in a public bathroom at Sunset Beach State Recreation Site in Clatsop County. MGN Image.

    CLATSOP COUNTY, OR – On Tuesday, September 16th, just before 10:30 a.m., Oregon State Police say they were notified of a suspicious backpack in a public bathroom at the Sunset Beach State Recreation Site in Clatsop County.

    Oregon State Parks officials reported the backpack, and OSP Explosives Unit was called in to investigate.  Bomb technicians from OSP and Salem Police Department responded to the scene and “rendered the device safe.”  Fire personnel from Warrenton and Astoria were on site, and no injuries were reported.

    State Parks and OSP reportedly checked multiple locations throughout the day but did not find any other suspicious devices.

    OSP believes this was an isolated incident, but the agency is asking the public to remain alert and report any suspicious objects to local law enforcement by calling 9-1-1 while staying a safe distance away from the object.

    Anyone with information about the Sunset Beach incident on Tuesday is asked to contact Oregon State Police investigators at *OSP (*677) or 1 (800) 442-0776 and reference case number SP25406805.

    The criminal investigation is ongoing.

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    Tim Lantz

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  • Explosives found buried in Rowley forest

    Explosives found buried in Rowley forest

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    ROWLEY — A man using a metal detector Thursday in the state forest off Route 1 uncovered a box of explosives that authorities say had been buried there for years.

    The explosives, including a box TNT, were found in a metal container near the Newbury town line, prompting the man to call Rowley police about 2:30 p.m., acting Chief Stephen May said in a release. The container also included a small amount of plastic explosives, he said. 

    The explosives appeared to have been in the ground for “an undetermined number of years,” the release said. 

    Rowley police and the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad responded to the woods and destroyed the explosives in a series of three blasts. 

    The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI also responded. The Rowley Fire Department and Action Ambulance assisted.

    No one needed to be evacuated since the box was found in a remote part of town far from homes and businesses

    Due to the age of the explosives and how long they were buried, authorities determined that no further investigation was needed.

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  • Long-Lost Bombs From the World Wars Are Increasingly Likely to Blow Up, Scientists Say

    Long-Lost Bombs From the World Wars Are Increasingly Likely to Blow Up, Scientists Say

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    Live ordnance from both the First and Second World Wars are more likely to detonate as they age, according to a new study published in Royal Society Open Science.

    Rebecca Hall on Filming Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

    “The munitions are continuously deteriorating, resulting in the release of hazardous materials into the environment, potentially posing environmental and societal risks,” the researchers wrote. “Moreover, as the explosives deteriorate over time, often resulting from inferior storage conditions or the presence of undesired factors such as moisture and certain metals, the munitions may become increasingly sensitive to external stimuli and susceptible to accidental detonation.”

    The team studied Amatols, explosive combinations of TNT and ammonium nitrate, extracted from historical ordnance in Norway. Amatols were first cooked up in 1915, when the United Kingdom found itself short on artillery shells during the First World War. For several decades—through the Second World War—Amatols were used as a convenient substitute for pure TNT in explosives.

    The ordnance recovered in Norway was live—i.e., set to explode—and was found during explosive ordnance disposal operations designed to avoid that very thing. All the ordnance studied by the team was produced before May 1945 and German-made.

    To test the sensitivity of the bombs, the team used a device called a fallhammer apparatus. The contraption is basically what it sounds like: masses are dropped on an explosive substance to determine the amount of force that is required to catalyze a reaction.

    Surprisingly, the ordnance was wholesale more sensitive to detonation today than it would have been when it was dropped. In the case of one explosive combination (dubbed “substance B” in the research), the explosive was four times more sensitive than expected.

    The team couldn’t determine what made the munitions more sensitive some 80 years after they were dropped. It may be the formation of salts that sensitize the mixture, they posited, or the contamination of the Amatol with metals the substances come into contact with in the ground. It may simple be the bombs losing structural integrity as they’ve sat in the ground over the decades.

    Increasingly sensitive bombs in the ground are a problem all over Europe and, frankly, wherever bombs have been dropped. In Germany, over 2,000 tons of munitions are found annually, and in the UK, thousands of explosive objects are found and safely dealt with each year. In Italy, about 60,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance are found each year, according to Atlas Obscura. And in Belgium, excavating explosive relics of the First World War remains a daily struggle. Overall, there are millions of tons of long-forgotten explosive ordnance, the team estimated.

    Furthermore, even undisturbed ordnance leaches toxic compounds into the ground as it deteriorates, the team wrote, posing a unique, vexing ecological problem.

    The team stressed the importance of getting the historical ordnance out of the ground, and taking even more care than is typical to do so. After all, no one wants to be on the receiving end of a particularly sensitive bombshell.

    More: Who Planted a Bomb That Killed Two People at the 1940 New York World’s Fair?

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    Isaac Schultz

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  • A man who went into a Wells Fargo and said he had explosives is shot by officer, police say

    A man who went into a Wells Fargo and said he had explosives is shot by officer, police say

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    An ordeal at a Fullerton Wells Fargo bank on Tuesday evening began with a possible robbery attempt in which a man threatened witnesses with an “explosive device” and ended when police shot the individual outside the bank’s doors, according to law enforcement officials.

    In a statement on social media, the Fullerton Police Department said officers responded to reports of a possible bank robbery in the 100 block of West Bastanchury Road around 5:09 p.m. and began evacuating employees.

    The Orange County sheriff’s bomb squad also responded to the scene.

    “While inside the bank, witnesses stated the suspect produced what appeared to be an explosive device. Upon exiting the bank, an officer involved shooting occurred,” the department wrote.

    Police spokesperson Kristy Wells declined to provide additional details on the incident, citing an ongoing investigation.

    It is unclear whether the suspect was killed, though CBS News reported the unidentified suspect died at the scene.

    KTLA reported that the suspect was shot after exiting the bank, and that officers then sent in a robot and drone to investigate items surrounding the unresponsive suspect.

    No employees or officers were injured, the Police Department said.

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    Hannah Wiley

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  • A San Diego high schooler threatened a shooting. Cops found explosives, ghost guns at teen’s home

    A San Diego high schooler threatened a shooting. Cops found explosives, ghost guns at teen’s home

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    The investigation started with reports of a student making threats. Then officers found what appeared to be a stockpile of explosives and other deadly weapons.

    San Diego police took a Poway high schooler into custody Friday after fellow students alleged that the teen threatened to shoot up their school.

    But the teen’s father also became entangled in the criminal investigation soon after, when officers found illegal explosives, untraceable guns and other weapons at the family’s home, police said.

    In response to the reported threats, police obtained a gun violence restraining order against the teen, giving them the power to secure any firearms to which the student might have had access, the San Diego Police Department said in a news release. When police searched the home Tuesday morning, officers found the weapons — lots of them, and many illegal ones, officers said.

    The teen’s father, 45-year-old Neal Anders, was later arrested on suspicion of possessing illegal firearms, manufacturing assault weapons and possessing a destructive device. The alleged arsenal included untraceable guns, commonly referred to as ghost guns, which do not have a serial number and are often assembled by purchasing parts sold without background checks. NBC San Diego reported that the confiscated cache also included rocket-propelled grenades and other explosive devices.

    San Diego police officials said teams continue to work to ensure the safety of the community and students at Rancho Bernardo High School in Poway, where the threat was first reported Friday.

    The teen was apprehended soon after other students reported “another student showing concerning videos and making threatening statements against others and the school,” according to an email sent to Rancho Bernardo families from Principal Hans Becker over the weekend.

    Becker praised the students who reported the incident for acting responsibly and said that although the school remains safe, San Diego police would be on campus this week “providing a reassuring presence.”

    The San Diego Metro Arson Strike Team assisted with the retrieval and seizure of the explosives from the family’s house.

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    Grace Toohey

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