Threats to Burn Mosque, Kill Obama Lead to Arrest
The FBI, acting on an online tip, has arrested a Massachusetts man who allegedly threatened to kill President Obama and burn down a mosque after chaining its doors shut.
Agents found “handwritten notes threatening violence against members of the Islamic religion” on Friday when they searched a Holliston, Mass., home and arrested Joseph Garguilo, court documents show.
Investigators also seized assault rifle ammunition, parts to assemble AR-15 rifles and chemicals to make incendiary and improvised explosive devices, according to federal court documents.
The 40-year-old suspect faces federal charges of being a “prohibited person in possession of ammunition,” but other federal charges may follow. The initial federal charge is based on a state judge’s restraining order, issued in July in a domestic case, that prohibits Garguilo from possessing firearms or ammunition.
The initial tip, the court documents say, was sent to www.fbi.gov, telling agents that Garguilo had said “he will plant bombs in police stations ... and kill as many Homeland Security officers as he can before they kill him.”
The informant told the bureau that Garguilo “hates gays, minorities and the police,” and was an “unstable and unpredictable” drug abuser who was acquiring parts to make an AR-15 while stockpiling food, water and other weapons, including tasers, mace guns, hunting knives and thermite, the court documents say.
FBI agents interviewed the tipster the next day and subsequently developed corroborating information from a second informant, the court documents say.
Garguilo had purchased the chemical thermite with the intention of building “grenades which he will use to kill police officers when martial law is declared,” FBI agents said in an affidavit used to get a search warrant.
A second informant told agents that Garguilo was stockpiling weapons and ammunition, a Kevlar helmet and vests and knives. Agents were told Garguilo “wants to attack a mosque and/or kill President Obama.”
“Garguilo made a comment to the effect that when President Obama was on the golf course in Martha' Vineyard [in Massachussets this summer], Garguilo should have taken the opportunity to kill him,” court document say.
In one conversation, Garguilo told the informant that he plans to “chain a mosque closed and burn it down. Burn every motherf----- down in there,” court documents say. The suspect did not identify a specific target or time for his planned attack.
Garguilo is being held without bond. A detention hearing is set for Sept. 7.
