Las Vegas Man Threatens President, Members of Congress While Inquiring About Fertilizer Bombs
A Las Vegas man who apparently posted dire warnings about a forthcoming U.S. military exercise is in federal custody, charged with threatening to kill President Obama and members of Congress.
Tyrone Paul Ponthieux, 55, of Las Vegas, was arrested by agents assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force after he allegedly made inquiries about obtaining a quantity of ammonium nitrate – a chemical fertilizer used for the deadly 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
“Ponthieux also made a statement that he may be killed, but not before he takes out a few of them first,” according to a federal complaint unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
Ponthieux is charged with making threats against Obama, possession with the intent to distribute marijuana and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
He is being held without bond and is scheduled to return to court later this week for a preliminary hearing, but that was postponed under a court-filed agreement between prosecutors and a court-appointed public defender.
“The parties are engaged in plea negotiations and require additional time to try to resolve the case in lieu of indictment or a preliminary hearing,” a court filing says.
Charging documents show that the FBI became aware of Ponthieux last November after a series of posting to Facebook.
“I think we all need to get our guns and shoot all of these out of control congressmen and senators and Obama!” Ponthieux wrote. “Any survivors, hang them, then try their dead bodies for High treason! … Then after they hang in the streets for a week, run over them, then to the tree chipper to finish the job and use them for fertilizer for Monsanto’s GMO bullshits, then feed it to Monsanto f-------- …”
When the FBI later interviewed Ponthieux, he “admitted to posting several death threats” directed at members of Congress and the President over the past few months, court documents say.
“Ponthieux said he made the threats because he was very angry and frustrated with the United States government” which he believes “no longer supports the American people and feels that it is President Obama’s fault,” the charging document said.
Ponthieux also told agents he “used methamphetamine approximately once a week” and that he had a supply of marijuana in his home. No explosives were found in a search of the residence, but agents did seize two pistols and five rifles, including an AR-15 military-style assault rifle that Ponthieux was holding while posing with a Humvee in a Facebook photo.
In another Facebook posting two days before he was interviewed by the FBI, Ponthieux ranted about Jade Helm, and linked to an antigovernment conspiracy site.
Its headline read: “Military Lied! Jade Helm is Training to Kill Patriots, Gun Owners, Dissidents! National Guard Labels Americans as 'Enemy' or 'Adversaries!' The Biggest Build up of Military on U.S. Soil!”
The training exercise, scheduled to start July 15 across seven states, is the latest hot-button topic for antigovernment conspiracy mongers who are advancing a plethora of wild-eyed theories about the “real reasons” for the operation.
