UPDATE: We have a name. BREAKING: Senior law enforcement sources identify suspect in suspicious package investigation as Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56, of Aventura, Florida. — Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) October 26, 2018 And a photo. Photo of suspect Cesar Sayoc Jr. pic.twitter.com/dvjEApfhAL — Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) October 26, 2018 Sayoc Jr. was reported to have a criminal history. UPDATE: President Trump will be addressing the nation soon. I will be speaking at the Young Black Leadership Summit in 15 minutes where I will address the investigation into the bomb packages. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2018 UPDATE: Authorities were seen covering a van believed to be owned by the suspect. WATCH: FBI agents cover up van near site where mail bombing suspect was taken into custody https://t.co/1KLWpCWSbL pic.twitter.com/wjh4ey1JYp — CBS News (@CBSNews) October 26, 2018 Authorities found the suspect via a cell phone, according to reports. LATEST: Suspect in custody in connection with suspect mail-bomb campaign was tracked through a cell phone; cell phone, laptop and other electronic devices have been recovered. https://t.co/q7OJsPJ4Bl pic.twitter.com/YerSRzdaJo — ABC News (@ABC) October 26, 2018 ORIGINAL POST Forensic evidence has led federal authorities to arrest a man in Plantation, Florida believed to be connected to the string of dangerous deliveries this week. BREAKING: CNN's @evanperez says that Federal authorities have arrested a man in connection with the investigation into the explosives sent to political figures across the country. — Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) October 26, 2018 Twelve suspicious packages were sent to prominent Democratic leaders and celebrities, including two today to former DNI director James Clapper and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). The other 10 were addressed to former President Obama, Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, former CIA director John Brennan, liberal billionaire George Soros, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). Thankfully, none of the devices have detonated. The Department of Justice says to standby for a press conference this afternoon. We can confirm one person is in custody. We will hold a press conference at the Department of Justice at 2:30pm ET. — Sarah Isgur Flores (@whignewtons) October 26, 2018 President Trump has reportedly been briefed on the arrest. He condemned the bomb threats earlier this week at a campaign rally in Wisconsin and from the White House, where he pledged to "bring those responsible for these despicable acts to justice.”<doc-sep>“We’re all responsible for making sure that we act and speak civilly,” she said. “When you raise the temperature, when you whip people into a frenzy, when you carelessly do not think about the impact of your words — particularly at the highest level of office in the country — then you are acting grossly irresponsible, and each of us has to make sure that we hold ourselves accountable.”<doc-sep>LATEST: —President Donald Trump said the media has a "major role to play" in culpability for the spree of 14 suspicious packages that were mailed to prominent figures. —Cesar Sayoc, 56, of Florida, was arrested for allegedly carrying out a suspected mail bombing campaign this week, sources said. He was charged with five federal crimes, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday afternoon. —Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, as well as former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer, are the latest high-profile figures to be targeted, sources said. —South Florida appears to be point of origin for some of the 14 suspected mail bombs, sources said. A suspect was arrested in Florida for an apparent mass mail bombing spree that targeted top Democrats and other prominent figures across the country, officials said. Cesar Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, Florida, allegedly carried out the widespread plot and triggered a nationwide manhunt, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News. The charges against him include interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of explosives, threats against former presidents and certain other persons, threatening interstate communications, and assaulting current and former federal officers, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at a news conference Friday afternoon. Sayoc faces up to 48 years in prison if convicted, a Justice Department spokeswoman told ABC News. He made no formal statement upon his arrest and gave no information as to how many more packages may be out there, law enforcement officials briefed on the case told ABC News. Sayoc-181026 by ABC News Politics on Scribd Investigators were able to compare a fingerprint from one of the envelopes sent to Rep. Maxine Waters and compared it to a sample collected from one of Sayoc's previous arrests in Florida, FBI Director Christopher Wray said at the briefing. Sayoc's DNA was also found on some of the wires used in the IEDs, according to law enforcement officials. "We do believe that we caught the right guy," Wray said. Sayoc was tracked down using a mobile phone. Authorities have recovered a cellphone, a laptop computer and other electronic devices from him, sources said. Sayoc appeared unperturbed when he was apprehended in the parking lot of an Auto Zone mechanic shop in Plantation, Florida, on Friday morning and led into a police vehicle, witness Paul Smith told ABC Miami affiliate WPLG. "It almost seemed like he knew he was going to get caught soon and that he was expecting it," Smith said. "...He was in handcuffs, and he was calmly escorted to the vehicle. I saw him get in, no problem. And he just had that look of, 'OK. It's over.'" Sayoc's residence is listed as his mother's home in Aventura, but he was, for a time, living in the white van covered in stickers of President Donald Trump, which is now being investigated. A relative of his told ABC News that the family is in shock. "We're in shock -- just shock," the relative said. "It's all very, very hard to process. It's just a crazy thing." Daniel Lurvey, Sayoc's former attorney who represented him in his grand theft and petty theft charges in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, also expressed surprise that he was arrested for the string of suspicious packages, describing him as "a gentleman" with "no political agenda." "He’s as regular, non-political as can be," Lurvey told ABC News, adding also that he is "somewhat gregarious and friendly." Another one of Sayoc's former attorneys, Miami-based lawyer Ronald Lowy, told ABC News that Sayoc's mother is a committed democrat and that his alleged behavior is inconsistent with her political views. Speaking from the White House Friday afternoon, Trump said the suspect will be prosecuted "to the fullest extent of the law." "These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country," the president said. "We must never allow political violence to take root in America." But, from a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday evening, Trump appeared once again to cast blame on the media for the bomb scare. "The media has a major role to play, whether they want to or not," Trump said. Sayoc is expected to be prosecuted in federal court in New York City, a senior law enforcement official told ABC News. He will first appear in the Southern District of Florida, where he was arrested, on Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York told ABC News. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jeff Berman described Sayoc's alleged as "insidious conduct." Court documents obtained by ABC News show that Sayoc has a long history of criminal charges, including at least eight arrests in Florida alone, ranging from giving false information to get a refund to grand theft auto. In 2002, Sayoc was arrested for threatening to discharge a destructive device after he allegedly called Florida Power & Light and "threatened to blow up" the power utility company, allegedly saying "it would be worse than September 11," the arrest record states. He pleaded guilty and was ultimately sentenced to probation, according to court documents. Court documents also show that, in 2014, Sayoc worked as a "road manager for a variety of traveling male revue shows." So far, authorities have recovered 14 suspicious packages in the widening investigation, with the latest targets on Friday being Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey as well as former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer, sources said. The package addressed to Booker was found Friday morning at or near Opa-locka in South Florida. The parcel addressed to Clapper was then discovered at a United States Postal Service office in New York City, sources said. The New York City Police Department wrote on Twitter that the package was "safely removed" from the post office in midtown Manhattan. "My wife and I are away from home right now. And our neighbors have been retrieving our mail. Been very concerned about them. So in one sense, it’s kind of a relief, but it’s not a surprise," Clapper said on CNN Friday morning.<doc-sep>Cesar Altieri Sayoc, the mail bomb suspect arrested Friday, has struggled for years with “a lack of comprehension of reality,” his former lawyer told CNN. Attorney Ronald S. Lowy said Sayoc’s mother and sisters have urged him to seek medical treatment, but he has refused. “He thinks there’s nothing wrong with him,” Lowy said shortly after meeting with the suspect’s family. Sayoc has been estranged from the family for the past several years, Lowy said, and his mother “can’t understand his (Sayoc's) behavior or views." Though FBI searched the mother’s home on Friday, Lowy predicted it would be “a waste of time” since Sayoc hadn’t visited the residence for at least three years. Lowy said the closest he came to getting treatment for Sayoc was in 2004 during a drug case that involved steroids. He said he negotiated with prosecutors to have it charged as a narcotics case so his client could get court mandated-treatment. It was not immediately clear whether he actually received such treatment. Lowy, who said he now represents Sayoc’s mother and two sisters, said they are struggling to come to terms with the allegations. “It’s a very emotional time for them,” he said.<doc-sep>
Correction: This story has been updated to accurately state that the Joint Terrorism Task Force is run by the FBI. (CNN) — DNA, fingerprints and pings from a cell phone tower led authorities to an auto parts store parking lot in south Florida where they arrested a 56-year-old man Friday morning. The arrest brought an end to a four-day nationwide manhunt for the alleged mailer of over a dozen suspected pipe bombs to prominent critics of President Donald Trump. A key break in the case for investigators came Thursday, according to a criminal complaint and multiple law enforcement officials, when they traced five packages to the Opa-Locka processing and distribution center outside of Miami. That break allowed authorities to narrow their search, which – combined with DNA and fingerprint samples left on a package sent to Rep. Maxine Waters and cell phone geolocation information – led to Cesar Sayoc, even as new devices were being found in New York and California. FBI agents arrested Sayoc at an AutoZone parking lot in Plantation, Florida, about six miles west of Fort Lauderdale, Friday morning as he was nearing his white van, which has been covered with images political in nature, including images of notable liberals such as Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama. A “CNN Sucks” sticker was also on the van. Two of the packages with explosive devices were addressed to the CNN New York bureau. Other targets include former Vice President Joe Biden, and critics of Donald Trump including Waters, actor-director Robert De Niro, and Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. A suspicious package similar to the others this week was also found Friday in the San Francisco Bay area addressed to Democratic billionaire donor Tom Steyer. Friday’s arrest was the culmination of a multi-agency federal, state and local law enforcement and civilian effort that began Monday when the first suspected pipe bomb sent to George Soros, a billionaire philanthropist who has supported Democrats, was intercepted. Three new suspected bombs were detected Friday morning in Florida, New York and California as agents in South Florida were preparing to apprehend Sayoc at the parking lot. The packages were nearly identical – six inch PVC pipes with wires, stuffed inside a bubble-wrap lined manila envelope, according to the complaint. Six American flag stamps were affixed to each envelope with the return address of Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s office. “These are not hoax devices,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a news conference Friday. Sayoc was charged with five criminal counts related to 13 explosive devices, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Friday. He faces up to 48 years in prison if convicted. 01:48 - Source: CNN See pro-Trump stickers on bomb suspect's van The investigation, led by the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Force, the NYPD, the US Postal Inspectors and other federal agencies and local law enforcement, depended heavily on the quick work of private security and US postal workers who detected bombs as they arrived at office buildings and post offices. Authorities were also aided by mistakes made by the alleged bomber who left traces of evidence investigators scrambled to understand. As explosive devices were sent to the FBI forensics lab in Quantico, investigators there detected DNA and a fingerprint found on the device intended for Waters and, working with local law enforcement, matched it late Thursday night to a sample of Sayoc’s DNA that had been previously collected, Wray said. Traces of DNA collected from two other of the bombs appeared related to Sayoc, according to the complaint filed in federal court Friday. With his possible identity known, investigators checked his cell phone number against cell phone towers in the vicinity to see if they matched the location and timing for when the packages originated, according to a law enforcement official. By Thursday night, agents and law enforcement officers, confident they had found the alleged bomber, were combing through social media posts of Sayoc and began surveilling him either Thursday night or Friday morning, the law enforcement official said. Clues appeared to confirm their suspicions. Sayoc misspelled words on posts that matched some of those on the packages. Some posts said, “Hilary” instead of “Hillary” Clinton, while another said “Shultz” instead of Schultz for Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Investigators first went to the home of Sayoc’s mother in Aventura, but were told he wasn’t there, according to a law enforcement official. As of Friday afternoon, authorities were searching his mother’s residential complex.