The Brave News

by Nikolas Molina and Elliston Ospina

According to CNN and The Washington Post, 14 pipe bombs were intercepted over the past week intended for extremely popular figures: George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Former Attorney General Eric Holder, Democratic US Rep. Maxine Waters, John Brennan, Actor Robert De Niro, Former Vice President Joe Biden, Democratic US Sen. Cory Booker, Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Democratic US Sen. Kamala Harris, and Democratic Donor Tom Steyer.

FBI Assistant Director William Sweeney has not confirmed where the packages came from, but believes they were delivered and sent from Florida, according to CNN.

They sent the packages through a US Postal Service facility in Opa-locka, Florida, two law enforcement officials with the investigation said.

“Some were obviously in the postal system,” said Sweeney.

The US government and higher ups in America released a statement recently, clarifying the nature of the event and the latest news.

“We cannot provide additional information at this time due to the active nature of this federal investigation,” read the statement.

An examination showed shortly after that all the pipe bombs had the same construction, with some even having shards of glass in them.

The bombs were shipped in manila envelopes, wrapped in bubble wrap, with six “American Flag Forever” stamps on it. The packages were extremely suspicious before deep examination, with timers on the packages.

“Each of the [improvised explosive devices] was largely similar in design and construction; they each consisted of approximately six inches of PVC pipe, a small clock, a battery, wiring, and energetic material. Certain parts of the mailings included photographs of the target-recipients marked with a red X,” according to CNN.

There has been an arrest made in relation to this incident already. Cesar Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, Florida, was arrested Friday in Plantation.

The FBI used flahsbangs to arrest him near an Autozone in the city of Plantation. Initially, Sayoc was cooperative and said that the pipe bombs wouldn’t have hurt anyone and that he didn’t want to harm anyone.

A white van with stickers of President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and a “CNN Sucks” sticker was towed on Friday to Miramar, Florida, where the local FBI office is located. It has been reported that Sayoc was living in the car following being kicked out of his parents home.

They suspected Sayoc of making the bombs in the van, finding soldering equipment, stamps, envelopes, paper, a printer and powder.

Investigators identified Sayoc because they found his own DNA on ten of the packages and investigators were also able to track him using his cell phone signal.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Cesar Sayoc currently faces five criminal counts: interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of explosives, threats against former presidents and other persons, threatening interstate communications and assaulting current and former federal officers.

Say will reportedly face up to 48 years in prison, according to a report from ABC News.

According to CNN, Soyac was not on the Secret Service list but he had a string of arrests since the 90’s. Soyac was arrested in 2002 when he threatened to bomb the Florida Power and Light Company and plant and, stating that the potential incident “would be worse than September 11th.”

The records show a total of eight arrests, grand theft, battery, fraud and drug possession, as well as probation violations. He was arrested in 2014 and later pleaded guilty to stealing copper pipes at a Home Depot.

Sayoc has been arrested and the problem has seemingly been adverted, but more connections to the investigation could be made in the future. It was extremely fortunate that this incident and potential catastrophe was avoided.