Two men have been charged in a Manhattan Federal Court in connection with stockpiling explosive devices and the manufacture of destructive devices.
Christian Toro and Tyler Toro, both 27 years old and from the Bronx, are charged with trying to build explosive devices from aluminium powder, iron oxide and potassium nitrate. A bomb threat was phoned into the school where Christian Toro worked as a teacher, and shortly after this his laptop was searched and a school employee found, among other things, a book on how to build explosive devices.
Following this, law enforcement agents searched the Bronx home where Christian and Tyler Toro lived and found various chemicals and firecrackers that could be used to build explosives, officials said, along with a diary in Tyler Toro’s name stating, ““WE ARE TWIN TOROS STRIKE US NOW, WE WILL RETURN WITH NANO THERMITE” and “I AM HERE 100%, LIVING, BUYING WEAPONS. WHATEVER WE NEED.”
Multiple students at the school where Christian Toro taught also told law enforcement agents that they had visited his home and were being paid $50 to break apart fireworks and store the powder that came out of them in containers.
Christian Toro is charged with one count of unlawfully manufacturing a destructive device and one count of distribution of explosive materials to a minor. Tyler Toro is charged with one count of unlawfully manufacturing a destructive device. Both defendants face maximum sentences of 10 years in prison.
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which consists principally of agents of the FBI and detectives of the NYPD.
This prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Hanft is in charge of the prosecution.
