FBI Seizes More than 150 Finished Homemade Bombs from Virginia Home in Agency’s Largest Seizure
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently seized the largest cache of “finished homemade explosive devices” in its history.
More than 150 were taken from the home of 36-year-old Brad Spafford in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.
Most of the bombs were found in a detached garage, along with tools and bomb making materials such as fuses and pieces of plastic pipe. Other explosives were found in a backpack in a bedroom “completely unsecured” in the home that Spafford shares with his wife and two young daughters.
Court documents say that Spafford was allegedly using pictures of President Biden for target practice.
Spafford is facing one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device and one count of possession of an unregistered short barrel rifle. Both are felony charges punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Spafford pleaded not guilty in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia.
He was ordered held until trial. U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen in Norfolk wrote that Spafford has “shown the capacity for extreme danger” noting that he’s missing three fingers on one of his hands due to an explosives accident.
Friend Turned Informant Alerted Law Enforcement
According to court documents, the investigation started in 2023, when a friend of Spafford’s told authorities that Spafford was stockpiling weapons and ammunition.
The informant also said Spafford disfigured his hand in 2021 while working on the explosives, and that Spafford “believed political assassinations should be brought back.”
Law enforcement moved swiftly after the informant visited the home in October 2024 and reported there were explosive materials in a freezer.
That prompted the December 17, 2024, search of the property, where agents found the rifle and explosive devices, some of which were hand-labeled “lethal” and some of which were loaded onto a wearable vest, according to court documents.
Most of the devices were detonated on the property as they were deemed unsafe to move.
Spafford’s attorneys argue that he is a family man with a steady job as a machinist with no criminal record and questioned whether the explosives were usable noting that “professionally trained explosive technicians had to rig the devices to explode them.”