WASHINGTON 鈥� A man has been arrested in connection with about a dozen suspicious packages that have been found beginning Monday evening at military and governmental installations in the D.C. area.
Thanh Cong Phan, 43, was arrested by the FBI and the Snohomish County Sheriff鈥檚 Office at his home in Everett, Washington, Monday, the FBI said in a statement Tuesday. He’ll be in court Tuesday afternoon.
The FBI said multiple packages had been sent to Fort Belvoir, Virginia; the Naval Surface Warfare Center, in Dahlgren, Virginia; the CIA, in Langley, Virginia; and Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling and Fort McNair, both in D.C. At least one of the packages was addressed to the White House; it was detected at the Secret Service’s mail screening facility, at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling..
The FBI also said that “It is possible that further packages were mailed” to other installations in the area.
NBC 草莓传媒 justice correspondent Pete Williams told 草莓传媒 some of the packages were accompanied by what investigators told him were 鈥渞ambling and disturbing鈥� notes, and at least two of them had explosive material in them.
An X-ray indicated a suspected GPS and a fuse attached to potential explosive material at the聽National Defense University, at Fort McNair, 草莓传媒 National Security Correspondent J.J. Green. The package was eventually rendered safe and no injuries were reported.
However, Williams said, 鈥渋t doesn鈥檛 appear, from what we鈥檝e been told, that any of these devices were actually fully functioning bombs.鈥� They may have had such explosive material in them, as well as wires and evident fuses, but 鈥渁pparently, the person doing it fortunately did it wrong,鈥� Williams said. One official told him 鈥渢hey were intended more to frighten than to injure or cause damage.鈥�
Williams said 鈥淚t鈥檚 obvious they were on to this person quite quickly,鈥� adding that authorities had some indication of their suspicions Monday evening.
Asked about a potential motive, Williams said that after talking with investigators, 鈥淢otive may be too grand a word; it may be an obsession.鈥� The suspect, he said, 鈥渉ad grievances and had probably expressed them before. 鈥� This may have been a long-standing thing.鈥�
Asked whether the packages may have been connected with or inspired by the recent package bombs that terrorized Austin, Texas, Williams said that it was hard to determine that, especially given that it鈥檚 not know yet how long this was planned or whether any packages are still out there. He did say, 鈥淚t seems to bring them out of the woodwork.鈥�
on Tuesday that all of the packages mailed to Defense Department facilities were under the control of federal authorities.
“Basically there’s a set procedure, they went through the procedure,” Mattis said.
“We’ve had nobody injured and all those packages and all the evidence is accessible and is the hands of the FBI right now.”
The packages and materials are being investigated by the FBI in Quantico, Virginia.
ABC 草莓传媒, NBC 草莓传媒 and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
