Nicholas LaHines, 37, Bridgeport, Conn. was arrested in the Bronx on May 19 after he allegedly sold eight explosive cylinders to a confidential informant of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Nicholas LaHines, a car salesman with a Ford dealership, was arrested after selling homemade bombs to a confidential informant with the FBI. MANHATTAN, N.Y. - Nicholas LaHines, 37, Bridgeport, Conn. was arrested in the Bronx on May 19 after he allegedly sold eight explosive cylinders to a confidential informant of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, according to a federal indictment released on Monday.
According to Prett Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, LaHines, a former car salesman, hit law enforcement's radar in April. Then on May 19, federal agents watched his home in Bridgeport, later following him to a parking lot in Bronx County, N.Y. where he met with the confidential informant.
LaHines allegedly retrieved two containers from the trunk of the car with four cylindrical explosives in each and sold them to the informant for $3,200. According to the FBI, LaHines explained to the informant the process he used to make the explosives and told the informant that he placed ball bearings in the bombs, in contrast to the glass and metal he said he used in previous bombs.
Technicians with the Joint Terrorism Task Force Bomb took custody of the devices, one of which later tested positive for the presence of gunpowder. Officers searched LaHines' Connecticut home where they allegedly found tubes, cord-like material, and caps similar in appearance to those used to construct the eight cylindrical devices that were sold to the confidential informant.
They also reportedly found a plastic container holding a "powder with an appearance consistent with that of gunpowder." A small jar of white powdery residue, also found in the residence, detonated in the course of being examined, causing injury to at least one law enforcement officer searching LaHines' Bridgeport condo.
According to his LinkedIn profile, LaHines was a car salesman at Rye Ford in Rye, N.Y. He also said that he had a determination to make money in whatever way he wanted to.
"I have a Knack for making money, and see a dollar sign on everything," LaHines said on his public profile. "If I wasn't making great Money Selling Cars I would be making great Money Doing something Else."
Despite the seriousness of the allegations, some of LaHines' neighbors told reporters he was just a tinkerer and that he likely didn't have any ill intent.
“As alleged, Nicholas LaHines was very proud of his bomb-making prowess, and more than happy to offer specific instructions on how to detonate his creations to maximize the harm they caused," Bharara said. "The fact that he is in custody and no longer a danger to the public is a measure of how seriously we, along with our law enforcement partners, take the illegal manufacture and sale of explosives, regardless of the seller’s motivation or affiliation.”
FBI Assistant Director in Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said that regardless of LaHines' intentions, the FBI takes such offenses seriously.
"The defendant’s interest in explosives, even absent any specific plan by him to cause harm, nonetheless posed a serious threat to public safety," Fedaryck said. "He clearly was willing to sell explosive devices without regard to how they would be used.”
New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly cited the operation as another example of cooperation between local and federal agencies.
“NYPD detectives and FBI agents worked successfully together to avert potential serious injury and death that these devices were capable of delivering," Kelly said. "Congratulations to them and to U.S. Attorney Bharara and his staff in bringing this individual to justice.”
In the federal indictment, LaHines is charged with manufacturing and dealing in explosive materials without a license, transportation of explosive materials without a license, distribution of explosive materials without a license, manufacturing and dealing in firearms without a license as well as transportation of a destructive device in interstate commerce without a license.
LaHines is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in the indictment on June 2, 2011, at 10:00 a.m.
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