Feds: 'Ex-Marine' With 'Right-Wing' Manifesto Built Bombs for Cocaine, Hoarded Assault Weapons
A Colorado man, who said that he was an ex-Marine and claimed a "right-wing declaration of independence/constitutionalist political manifesto," built improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to trade for cocaine and hoarded several military-style assault weapons that may have been converted to machine guns, the Department of Justice said on Thursday.
According to an affidavit, federal agents with the Bureau of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) raided the home of Richard Lawrence Sandberg in Jefferson County on Thursday after he provided an undercover agent with homemade bombs.
After receiving a tip from a Denver Police Department detective, ATF Special Agent Shane Abraham contacted Sandberg and told him he needed an explosive device to protect a building. Sandberg, who claimed to be "former Special Ops Recon SS Marine Corps," allegedly said that he was in possession of "incendiary" or "napalm" explosives, but the devices were wrong for the job. The suspect then recommended a "frag" -- or fragmentation device -- and suggested that he could provide something that was also waterproof.
Sandberg claimed that the kill zone for his "frags" was 20 meters and the hurt zone was 60 meters, the affidavit said. He called his IEDs "homemade shit" that were built with materials from Home Depot and were "life or death." The suspect said that he also had 18 military-grade M67 fragmentation hand grenades, but would only sell five.
During their first meeting on Tuesday, Sandberg told Abraham that he had built Claymore bombs with glass shrapnel while serving in war zones, and that the shrapnel could not be detected in bodies of the victims. The affidavit said that Sandberg "claimed a right-wing declaration of independence/constitutionalist political manifesto" and worried that the Obama administration's current gun safety push was an effort to take away his guns.
