The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a man who is believed to have the greatest number of explosive devices in the bureau’s history. The FBI found “more than 150 apparent explosive devices on the property, preliminarily assessed as the largest seizure by number of finished explosive devices in FBI history,” court documents say.
The documents note that Virginia resident Brad Kenneth Spafford “poses an extreme danger to the community, which cannot be sufficiently mitigated by bond conditions.”
“During the execution of a search warrant at his home earlier this month, where the defendant lived with two young children, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) located not only the rifle but a stockpile of more than 150 homemade improvised explosive devices, assessed as pipe bombs,” the documents describe. “Some of these devices were marked ‘lethal.’ Most of the devices were found in a detached garage, where the FBI also found tools and manufacturing materials, including homemade fuses and pieces of PVC pipe. Several additional apparent pipe bombs were found in a backpack in the home’s bedroom, completely unsecured.”
Spafford has been charged with a count of failing to register a short-barrel rifle.
The defendant also kept a jar of explosive material in his freezer.
Spafford’s lawyer said there was “no evidence introduced that Mr. Spafford is a danger to the community and in fact, the evidence showed he had never used any explosive device, never threatened to use one, and never threatened any individual or group.” He noted that evidence was that “professionally trained explosive technicians had to rig the devices to explode them.”
