Federal agents uncovered a disturbing discovery in a Virginia home…
The FBI found the largest hoard of homemade explosive devices in the agency’s history last month in Virginia.
Brad Spafford was taken into custody on Dec. 17 at his farm outside of Norfolk, Virginia, on a single-count criminal complaint that accused him of failing to register a short-barrel rifle. However, when investigators searched the 20-acre property, they discovered more than 150 explosive devices.
Prosecutors in Federal District Court in Norfolk filed the court papers describing Mr. Spafford’s explosives in an effort to keep him in custody as his case moves toward trial.
According to the court papers, which were reported earlier by the website Court Watch, the investigation into Mr. Spafford began last year, after a neighbor reached out to the authorities. Mr. Spafford had lost three fingers on his right hand while working with a homemade explosive device, the neighbor said, and he was stockpiling weapons and homemade ammunition.
The neighbor reported that Mr. Spafford had told him that he and his friends were “preparing for something” that he “would not be able to do alone,” the court papers said.
The neighbor also told investigators that Mr. Spafford sometimes used photographs of President Biden for target practice at a local shooting range and believed that “political assassinations should be brought back.” After the attempt on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s life in Pennsylvania in July, the papers said, Mr. Spafford told his neighbor that he “hoped the shooter doesn’t miss Kamala,” an apparent reference to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mr. Spafford moved to his farm this fall, and the neighbor went to visit him there in October wearing a secret recording device, the papers said. Mr. Spafford told the neighbor that he had various types of explosives at the property and discussed fortifying it with “a 360-degree turret” in which he planned to mount a 50-caliber rifle, according to the papers. (NYT)
