|
 Alexander Ciccolo, 23, was arrested on July 4 after illegally
receiving four guns from a person working with the U.S. Justice
Department, which had placed him under surveillance after his father
alerted authorities to his activities.
Ciccolo told an informant that he wanted to build bombs similar to
those detonated at the Boston Marathon in 2013, and federal agents
saw him buy a pressure cooker similar to the ones used in that
attack, which killed three people and injured more than 260,
according to federal prosecutors.
Authorities also said they found partially built bombs at his
apartment that were filled with a mix of shredded Styrofoam and
motor oil, a combination that federal prosecutors said Ciccolo
believed would stick to victims' skin, causing severe injuries.
 Ciccolo will face two criminal counts when he appears in U.S.
District Court in Springfield, Massachusetts: One for illegally
receiving four guns including two military-style assault rifles and
one for stabbing a nurse with a pen while he was being booked at a
jail in Western Massachusetts after his arrest.
He was prohibited from owning firearms due to a prior criminal
conviction.
A federal judge unsealed the charges against Ciccolo on July 13 and
ordered him held without bail the following day.
Ciccolo could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
In a video taken after his arrest and played in court this month,
Ciccolo defended Islamic State's hostage executions and agreed with
an FBI interviewer's assertion that in his view all Americans should
be considered "enemies."
[to top of second column] |
U.S. authorities have expressed increasing concern about "lone wolf"
attacks by citizens who become adherents of Islamic State and other
militant groups, many of which have robust online propaganda
operations.
Last month, officers in Boston shot Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, whom
they suspected of planning to behead police officers on behalf of
Islamic State. Rahim, a 26-year-old security guard, threatened
officers with a large knife and was shot and killed after ignoring
orders to drop the weapon, according to court papers.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, an adherent of al Qaeda's violent Islamist
ideology who carried out the marathon bombing, was sentenced to
death last month.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
